Category: Covid-19

Yascha Mounk: No testing, no treatment, no herd immunity, no easy way out

In late January, just one week after the countrys first case was diagnosed, government officials urged medical companies to develop coronavirus test kits and told manufacturers to prepare for mass production. By mid-Februarywhile the U.K. was talking about herd immunity and President Donald Trump was predicting that the virus would miraculously disappear in weeksSouth Korea was churning out thousands of test kits every day. By March 5, South Korea had tested 145,000 peoplemore than the U.S., the U.K., France, Italy, and Japan combined.

To spare hospitals from being overrun with patients, as they were in 2015, Korean officials opened 600 testing centers and pioneered the use of drive-through testing stations to reduce face-to-face contact indoors. Inspired by drive-through counters at fast-food restaurants, these pop-up centers offered patients 10-minute tests without forcing them to leave their cars.

In most countries, contact tracingor, simply, tracingrefers to the practice of interviewing recent patients to learn where, when, and to whom they might have passed along the disease. South Korea combines that approach with high-tech surveillance made possible by the post-MERS legislation mentioned above.

Read: Would you sacrifice your privacy to get out of quarantine?

The way Seoul does it is, theyll send out an alert saying that there were X number of new confirmed cases today, if any, and that you can check their routes on the district website, Yung In Chae, a writer based in Seoul, told me in an email. On the website, each patient is identified [by] their gender and their age. They also note, with asterisks, whether their houses have been disinfected, whether there were contacts, and whether they were wearing masks the entire time. Lately, most of our cases have been imported, so the routes are pretty boring: People are going from the airport, to quarantine in their house, to their community health center to get tested.

This level of surveillance might alarm some Americans. But, again, its important to consider South Koreas response in the context of the MERS outbreak. In 2015, the governments most public failure was its refusal to share any information about the hospitals where sick patients might have visited. In 2020, South Koreans seem mindful of the trade-offs between privacy and public health, and the sources I spoke with welcomed tracing technology. Im fine with the amount of information shared, Yung In Chae said. I think that weve figured out a good balance between guarding privacy and public health.

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Whats Behind South Koreas COVID-19 Exceptionalism? - The Atlantic

A new strain of Coronavirus, COVID 19, is spreading around the world, causing deaths and major disruption to the global economy.

Responding to this crisis requires global cooperation among governments, international organizations and the business community, which is at the centre of the World Economic Forums mission as the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation.

The Forum has created the COVID Action Platform, a global platform to convene the business community for collective action, protect peoples livelihoods and facilitate business continuity, and mobilize support for the COVID-19 response. The platform is created with the support of the World Health Organization and is open to all businesses and industry groups, as well as other stakeholders, aiming to integrate and inform joint action.

As an organization, the Forum has a track record of supporting efforts to contain epidemics. In 2017, at our Annual Meeting, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) was launched bringing together experts from government, business, health, academia and civil society to accelerate the development of vaccines. CEPI is currently supporting the race to develop a vaccine against this strand of the coronavirus.

1. How COVID-19 is impacting the globe

Confirmed coronavirus cases are at more than 3.75 million worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University. More than 263,000 people have died from the virus, while over 1.2 million have recovered.

Chrystia Freeland, Deputy Prime Minister of Canada, spoke on navigating the economic limitations of the COVID-19 era at Wednesday's virtual meeting of the Forum's COVID Action Platform.

"One of the areas where we feel that we have been more successful than people might have thought is in maintaining our trade with the United States," she said.

Responding to the need to close the Canadian-US border to limit the spread of the coronavirus, she added: "We have been able to cut down the traffic across that border by over 90% and at the same time trade is still happening goods and services are still flowing across the border."

Launched last month, the Forum's platform aims to convene leaders from governments and the business community for collective action to protect peoples livelihoods, facilitate business continuity and mobilize support for a global response to the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, more than 1,500 people from more than 1,000 businesses and organizations have joined the platform. To find the latest updates on the platform, check out our recently-launched highlights blog.

Wondering what offices will look like in the new normal? South Korea's new guidelines give one approach for how people might return to work while still helping to suppress the virus. The guidelines feature some COVID-19 hygiene basics, such as hand washing and no handshaking. They also discourage happy hours and prompt workers to return home after the day is done.

4. How a financial freeze could protect us from economic collapse

Lockdowns have brought economies around the world to a screeching halt. To blunt their impact, a 'Big Freeze" could help, wrote Sarah Nadav of Rapid Economic Innovation COVID-19 in this week's Agenda.

Big Freeze economic theory would halt time-related fixed expenses temporarily, Nadav says. These would include rent or mortgage payments and health insurance. Supporting businesses would close temporarily while a Universal Basic Income (UBI) would be distributed.

"The goal is to prevent debt, preserve existing economic infrastructure, protect individuals, and position businesses for a smooth market re-entry when the time is right."

5. Using cash payments to protect the poor in PakistanPakistan has a population of 210 million and a third of its population subsists from daily and piece-rate wages. To protect those living in extreme poverty during the COVID-19 response, cash payments have been an important lifeline, writes one official in this week's Agenda.

In a new program, eligible families receive approximately $75 (enough to provide subsistence nutrition for four months), according to Sania Nishtar, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister of Pakistan on Poverty Alleviation and Social Protection.

The program reached 7 million of the nations poorest people in just its first two weeks. Cash transfers structured appropriately, writes Nishtar, can be low-cost, effective and efficient ways to provide humanitarian assistance.

"It is clear already that COVID-19 will have lasting health and economic effects beyond the effects of damage caused directly by the virus itself," Nishtar wrote. "While the suffering will be difficult to quantify, measures like this may help alleviate at least some of the damage caused by the pandemic."

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World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with our Terms of Use.

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Linda Lacina, Digital Editor, World Economic Forum

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

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COVID-19: What you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic on 7 May - World Economic Forum

Numerous reports of skin rashes in patients with COVID-19 are cropping up around the world.

The rashes can take many forms some appear as tiny red spots, while others appear as larger flat or raised lesions. Some have a hive-like appearance, while others look like frostbitten toes.

However, its too early to say whether these rashes are indeed caused by the new coronavirus, or whether they are related to other factors. Thats really the million dollar question, said Dr. Kanade Shinkai, a professor of dermatology at the University of California, San Francisco, and editor-in-chief of the journal JAMA Dermatology.

Its unclear whether the skin lesions we see in COVID are actually a direct manifestation of the virus in the skin, or whether they are a reaction pattern due to a generally ramped-up immune system, Shinkai told Live Science.

Related: What are symptoms of the coronavirus?

Its also possible some rashes are due to complications from the disease, reactions to medications or even due to other viruses in patients with co-infections, Shinkai and colleagues wrote in an editorial published April 30 in the journal JAMA Dermatology.

Social media posts and online forum discussions have called attention to these rashes, but it is now time for rigorous science, the authors wrote. Work is needed to address many unanswered questions, such as how common the rashes are, and what they mean with regard to the patients ultimate outcomes.

Its well known that some viral illnesses, such as chickenpox, measles and hand, foot and mouth disease, can cause rashes. But virus-related rashes are more typically seen in children, Shinkai said. Thats why its much more striking to see numerous reports of rashes in adult patients with COVID-19, she said.

Exactly how common the rashes are remains unclear. In one early study of more than 1,000 COVID-19 patients in China, published Feb. 28 in the New England Journal of Medicine, rashes were noted in only 0.2% of patients. However, in a more recent study of about 150 hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Italy, rashes were found in 20% of patients. The latter study, published March 26 in the Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, was conducted by dermatologists, who are going to be able to detect more subtle skin changes than doctors in other specialities, Shinkai said.

More studies are needed that follow patients over a period of time to get a better idea of the true prevalence of rashes tied to COVID-19, Shinkai said. Still, one challenge to this is that some patients may have mild or no other symptoms of disease, and may never be diagnosed with COVID-19, she said.

Distinct rashes can sometimes be a telltale sign of a particular infection. Whether this will be the case for COVID-19 patients remains to be seen, the JAMA editorial said.

So far, a variety of rashes have been noted in COVID-19 patients. A Spanish study published April 29 in the British Journal of Dermatology grouped coronavirus-related rashes into five categories: a maculopapular rash, or one thats characteristic of viral infections such as measles, with red bumps on reddish skin; a urticaria rash characteristic of hives; a livedo rash with a lace-like or fishnet pattern; a vesicular eruption or blistering rash; and a frostbite-like rash on the toes, unofficially dubbed covid toes.

Related: 13 coronavirus myths busted by science

In addition, one recent case report published April 30 in JAMA Dermatology described the case of a man in Spain who developed petechiae, or tiny red dots on the skin; and a separate case report, also published in JAMA Dermatology, described a patient in France who developed larger lesions known as a digitate papulosquamous eruption.

The timing of rash symptoms with COVID-19 also seems to vary widely in some cases, rashes precede symptoms such as fever; in other cases, rashes may appear a few days into the illness or not show up until late in the course of the infection.

Research is needed to comprehensively evaluate these rashes and when they occur, Shinkai said. Doctors will also need to examine tissue samples to determine if the virus that causes COVID-19, known as SARS-CoV-2, can be detected in the skin itself, which is the case for some viral illnesses that cause rashes, Shinkai said.

In addition, the significance of these rashes such as whether they are tied to better or worse outcomes for patients should also be studied, she said. For example, some patients with covid toes have been reported to have mild or asymptomatic cases of COVID-19, Live Science previously reported.

To help doctors learn more about COVID-19 and rashes, a task force with the American Academy of Dermatology has created an online COVID-19 dermatology registry, where health care providers can report skin findings linked to the disease, Live Science previously reported.

Originally published on Live Science.

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More than 'covid toes': Numerous reports of skin rashes tied to COVID-19 - News Info Park

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Pittsburgh Food Bank responding to covid-19 needs in variety of ways - Tribune-Review

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) On Wednesday, first responders stopped by different neighborhoods in the city of Harrisonburg to pass out COVID-19 care kits for residents.

According to a statement from the city, the COVID-19 Health Equity Working Group of Virginias Unified Command donated around 15,000 disposable face masks and hundreds of hand sanitizer bottles to the city. Walmart and the Garber family, which ran the recently-closed Red Front Supermarket, provided thousands of bags to pack the supplies in

On Tuesday, city staff members stuffed 1,100 care kits with the supplies: 500 of which contain 14 masks each and information in five languages about how to prevent COVID-19, while the other 600 contain a bottle of hand sanitizer in addition to the masks and flyers.

The Harrisonburg Fire Department stopped by two neighborhoods on Wednesday and left 240 care kits in front of homes for residents to pick up.

The city said they plan on handing out all 1,100 kits by Friday.

The city says Mayor Deanna Reed worked closely with Dr. Janice Underwood, Virginias chief diversity officer to Gov. Ralph Northam, to set up the initiative and obtain the donations.

As we all work together to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 on the Harrisonburg community, it is of the utmost importance that we take whatever steps necessary to engage with our most at-risk residents and ensure they have every opportunity to protect the health and wellness of themselves, their loved ones and their neighborhoods, Mayor Reed said. Individuals who do not have easy access to health care due to economic considerations or language barriers need our support at this time more than ever. We are extremely grateful for Dr. Underwood and the Virginia Health Equity Task Force for the commitment they have made to support the people of The Friendly City.

The care kits are a part of the city's continued efforts to reach diverse neighborhoods and Harrisonburg residents who speak English as a second language or not at all.

This past weekend, the city offered mobile COVID-19 testing sites in two city neighborhoods, giving residents who may not otherwise be able to get tested the chance.

That resulted in more than 80 people receiving tests in the city's Mosby Court and Northeast neighborhood areas.

"One of the priorities of the equity task force is to intentionally collaborate with local governments to provide support to vulnerable communities because we know that everyone does not enjoy the same privileges for social distancing or receive information the same way, Dr. Underwood said. Therefore, we provide localities access to health equity training for all city employees and volunteers, personal protective equipment, culturally appropriate educational materials to support diverse communities, and support in identifying neighborhoods at elevated risk with mapping technology."

As of May 5, the city of Harrisonburg has among the highest per capita rates of COVID-19 in the commonwealth of Virginia, with 525 total cases confirmed. The Virginia Department of Health reports at least 31 cumulative hospitalizations and 19 deaths in the city.

Because of Mayor Reed and her teams leadership and laser-focused commitment to the Harrisonburg community, the equity task force was able to move quickly in support of the residents in the area who needed the most help," Dr. Underwood continued.

The City of Harrisonburg urges all city residents to continue following the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Preventions guidelines on hand-washing and social distancing, as well as to continue following Gov. Northam's Stay at Home order and executive order banning gatherings of more than 10 people.

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First responders deliver COVID-19 care kits around Harrisonburg - WHSV

A glimpse at Lyfts stock price Wednesday, which soared as much as 16.77% after first-quarter earnings were reported, suggested all was well in the ride-hailing companys world.

In this COVID 19-era, well is a relative term. Lyfts net losses did dramatically improve from the year-ago quarter (a loss of $398 million versus $1.1 billion in Q1 2019). However, Lyft was clear in its earnings call: COVID-19 had a profound impact on its customers and its business and the future was uncertain.

It is impossible to accurately predict the duration and depth of the economic downturn we face, Lyft CFO Brian Roberts said during an earnings call Wednesday afternoon. Our business may be impacted for an extended period of time. So we must be prepared to adapt accordingly.

The difficulty of predicting what will happen has hamstrung thousands of companies trying to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. Last month, Lyft withdrew its previously provided revenue and adjusted EBITDA guidance for full year 2020 because of the vast unknowns.

Given this fluidity, it is impossible for us to predict with any certainty our results, Roberts said. After the requisite warnings, Roberts did eventually provide an outlook for the second quarter and it isnt pretty. The outlook focused on adjusted EBITDA, which doesnt give the most complete financial picture. It provides enough to understand that even with considerable cost-cutting measures, Lyft will suffer losses nearly four times wider than the first quarter.

Roberts said Lyft can manage to keep its second quarter adjusted EBITDA loss under $360 million if rides on its rideshare platform remain at April levels which were down 75% year-over-year for the remainder of the quarter. Lyft reported Wednesday an adjusted EBITDA loss of $85.2 million in the first quarter.

There are some early signs of a recovery. Ridership in the week ended May 3 was up 21% from the lows experienced in mid-April, according to Lyft. However,Lyft cant afford to simply hope rideshare will return. It has to and already has enact a plan that will allow it to navigate the pandemic and come out as a survivor. In other words, Lyft will be judged at how well can stem the losses and find new revenue streams.

Work to cut costs has already started.

The company put together an aggressive plan to strengthen its financial position, Lyft co-founder and CEO Logan Green said during the earnings call. Lyft reduced its more than 5,000-person workforce by 17% and furloughed nearly another 300. Lyft also initiated a three-month pay reduction for all salaried employees, ranging from 10% for its most non-hourly team members, up to 30% for its senior leadership team and board members.

Every other expense line is being scrutinized and no stone will be left unturned, Green said.

The company expects to be able to cut its annualized fixed costs by $300 million by the end of the year. The reductions are based on its original expectations for 2020. Lyft has also ended rider coupons once ridership began to decline in mid-March and paused adding new drivers in nearly all markets.

This reduces costs we incur associated with onboarding new drivers and helps protect utilization and earnings opportunities for existing drivers during this time of lower ride demand, Green said.

Lyft reduced its 2020 capital expenditure plan by $250 million. And its sought out cost savings on the insurance front. (The companysprimary auto insurance policies expire at the end of September; Roberts said theyre considering the best options to reduce future volatility, as well as lower overall costs.)

The company is also shifting attention and resources to projects that executives believe will improve its unit economics. Finding those revenue streams will be tricky. Lyft has already provided a few clues of where its headed.

The company will continue with its Essential Deliveries pilot that launched April 15. The initiative lets government agencies, local non-profits, businesses and healthcare organizations request on-demand delivery of meals, groceries, life-sustaining medical supplies, hygiene products and home necessities.

Green said the company will evaluate any future opportunities based on how it performs. But he quickly added that we have no interest in launching a consumer food delivery service. And so, we will not be doing that.

Green also seemed cautiously optimistic about a new lost cost product called Wait and Save, that allows Lyft optimize the marketplace and be more efficient with matching drivers and riders.

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How Lyft intends to navigate and survive COVID-19 - TechCrunch

PROVO Two Utah County businesses didnt follow public health best practices for COVID-19, resulting in 68 positive cases of the disease, officials say.

Utah County government officials did not identify the two businesses in an announcement posted Monday evening on Facebook.

The businesses were in different geographic areas of the county, the statement says. Through contact tracing, the Utah County Department of Health discovered that the businesses told their employees not to follow quarantine guidelines after being exposed to a confirmed COVID-19 case at work.

At one of the businesses, employees who tested positive for COVID-19 were instructed to come back to work.

One of the businesses saw 48% of its employees test positive for the disease, according to the county statement. One of the businesses was shut down completely, and both will be subject to heightened requirements for future inspections and cleanings, the statement says.

Utah County Health Department Executive Director Ralph Clegg said Wednesday the department isn't releasing the names of the businesses to avoid the businesses or employees being targeted by members of the public. Health department officials want to avoid the businesses or employees suffering any consequences they don't deserve, he said.

"We just dont know how individuals would react to that," Clegg said. "Were doing all that we can to make sure that those types of situations get rectified."

Health department investigators are working with people involved in the business outbreaks and working through their contacts to determine other people who may have been exposed, Clegg said. Typically, people who may have potentially been exposed to COVID-19 are notified through health department contact tracing.

The business that closed was shut down over a weekend for cleaning, Clegg said, though he did not know the exact date of the closure.

Utah County Commissioner Tanner Ainge said Wednesday he did not know the names of the businesses involved but said they are not public-facing businesses. One is a manufacturing or production facility, he said.

Ainge said he was not aware of anyone being hospitalized as a result of the outbreak at the businesses. None of the cases were categorized as severe, he added.

Clegg also said he was not aware of any severe health outcomes stemming from either business, but the possibility of such an outcome is always there, he added.

Ainge and other county leaders have tried to be mindful of both sides of the pandemic and have worked to consider public health and economic concerns, he said.

Nevertheless, the businesses exhibited behavior that should never be allowed, Ainge said.

"Its completely irresponsible to be that reckless with their employees' health," he said.

The behavior of the two businesses could potentially jeopardize economic activity for the rest of the businesses in Utah County, Ainge added.

The county, along with the rest of the state, has moved to an orange, moderate-risk level of operations for COVID-19, he said. However, the business outbreaks could slow down the process for further lessening restrictions, or could even force the county to move back to more stringent regulations, Ainge said.

Despite the situation, Ainge said he believes that a few bad actors wont undo the rest of the good work the county has done to limit the spread of COVID-19 and respond to the pandemic.

"Its really a disturbing example of what can happen," Ainge said.

The county leaders sent out the letter Monday to remind other businesses that they need to follow the guidelines as more establishments begin opening again, Clegg said. It's important for them to follow the guidelines, or they could risk a similar outbreak.

If people follow the social distancing guidelines set forth by the county, state and federal governments, they shouldn't be at risk for COVID-19, Clegg added. However, if they deviate from those guidelines, there could be an increased risk for them.

The disease is still somewhat widespread in the community, so people are advised to follow those guidelines, Clegg said.

The department does not have staffing capabilities to be able to conduct random spot checks for compliance at other businesses in the community, he said. However, the department will investigate any complaints they receive about businesses not following guidelines, he added.

If situations arise where complaints are filed with us well do our best to follow up on those," Clegg said.

Intermountain Healthcare is conducting mobile testing in Orem and Provo this week.

Intermountain says the mobile testing units will be used to respond to hotspot areas of increased COVID-19 activity and to provide more testing where it is needed. It's not clear if the testing is being done in connection with the two business outbreaks.

All people living in the 84057 zip code in Orem will be tested Wednesday, and everyone living in the 84606 zip code in Provo will be tested on Thursday and Friday, according to Intermountain.

Testing is taking place at the Orem Community Hospital, 600 W. 400 North, until 6 p.m. Wednesday. The testing center is near the soccer field parking.

In Provo, testing will be done at Utah Valley Hospital, 852 N. 400 West. People are advised to call Intermountain's COVID-19 Hotline at 844-442-5224 before they arrive at the testing centers.

Testing is free and insurance information is not needed. The testing process takes between 5 and 15 minutes.

For more information, visit Intermountain's website.

Contributing: Debbie Dujanovic and Dave Noriega, KSL NewsRadio

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68 positive COVID-19 cases result from 2 businesses refusing to follow health guidelines - KSL.com

Written by Abantika Ghosh | New Delhi | Updated: May 7, 2020 1:18:26 pm A volunteer at trials, led by the University of Oxford, on the newly announced vaccine candidate against Covid-19. (Source: University of Oxford via AP)

A recent announcement by the University of Oxford that researchers there had started testing a vaccine against the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19) has raised hopes. Over the last few weeks, there have also been somewhat conflicting reports about the performance of a drug candidate, remdesivir, while Israel has announced a breakthrough in another possible line of treatment, that with antibodies.

Here, we look at vaccine candidates around the world, including the one announced by the University of Oxford.

How do vaccines work?

These are biological products that, when introduced in the body, teach the immune system to identify a disease-causing pathogen and store in memory which fightback options are the most effective. Some vaccines are live pathogens, whose ability to cause harm has been muted but whose essential identifying features have been retained so that the body can learn to recognise it.

For example, the yellow fever vaccine is a live, weakened yellow fever virus; the BCG vaccine too is a live attenuated strain derived from an isolate of Mycobacterium bovis used widely as a vaccine for tuberculosis. The polio vaccine has the killed virus. Still other vaccines bank on teaching the body to identify the toxins released by the pathogen and act.

What are the other therapy options besides vaccines?

Various drug and therapy options are being tried around the world. Besides the global interest in the drug remdesivir, India has been talking about convalescant plasma therapy (in which the blood plasma of recovered Covid-19 patients, with antibodies, are transfused into the new patient); the Health Ministry has clarified it is a trial and not an approved treatment. Israel recently announced a significant breakthrough in development of monoclonal antibodies (those created from a single clone of cells) to treat Covid patients.

Vaccines are important because a lot of resources are saved in preventing a disease and not having to treat it. Vaccines have been key to the elimination of once dreaded diseases such as smallpox.

For Covid-19, a vaccine is of paramount importance at this stage. Until an effective treatment emerges, there are only two possible courses ahead: Either communities develop herd immunity (a painful process involving high rates of infections and deaths), or a vaccine is made available around the world at affordable costs.

What is the new vaccine for which tests have been announced?

It was originally intended for another coronavirus the one that causes MERS. It has been developed at the Jenner Institute and named ChAdOx1 nCoV-19.

In a statement issued on April 23, the University of Oxford said: ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 is made from a virus (ChAdOx1), which is a weakened version of a common cold virus (adenovirus) that causes infections in chimpanzees, that has been genetically changed so that it is impossible for it to grow in humans. Genetic material has been added to the ChAdOx1 construct, that is used to make proteins from the COVID-19 virus (SARS-CoV-2) called Spike glycoprotein (S). This protein is usually found on the surface of SARS-CoV-2 and plays an essential role in the infection pathway of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus uses its spike protein to bind to ACE2 receptors on human cells to gain entry to the cells and cause an infection.

The idea is to teach the body to recognise the spike protein of the virus by first exposing it to ChAdOx1 nCoV-19. Thus when SARS-CoV2 enters the body, an immune response is mounted based on that recognition. Vaccines made from the ChAdOx1 virus have been given to more than 320 people to date and have been shown to be safe and well tolerated, although they can cause temporary side effects, such as a temperature, headache or sore arm, the statement added.

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There is also an India connection to the vaccine. The Serum Institute of India, one of the largest vaccine manufacturers in the world, is a partner for the production of the vaccine in preparation for the trials. In a statement, the company has said: SII will be manufacturing the vaccine in anticipation of clinical trials succeeding by September-October in the UK. The vaccine will not be made available to the public in two-three weeks, as suggested in some media reports. Following that, SII has undertaken the decision to initiate the manufacture at their own risk. The decision has been solely taken to have a jump start on manufacturing, to have enough doses available, if the clinical trials work.

What is the progress of trials?

The vaccine leapt straight to human trials for testing of efficacy because the safety had already been proven earlier, when it was being developed as an option against MERS.

For the trial, 1,102 participants will be enrolled across Oxford, Southampton, London and Bristol. They will be split into the vaccine arm and the control arm; the control will not be a placebo as is usually done, but another vaccine. This will be MenACWY , a vaccine licenced for use against a common bacteria that causes meningitis and sepsis.

Also read | What are human challenge trials, and why are they controversial?

This is being done because ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 causes some side-effects such as headache and fever. Using a placebo such as saline control would not produce those same side-effects, thus the subject would know what he or she had received. If participants were to receive only this vaccine or a saline control, and went on to develop side effects, they would be aware that they had received the new vaccine. It is critical for this study that participants remain blinded to whether or not they have received the vaccine, as, if they knew, this could affect their health behaviour in the community following vaccination, and may lead to a bias in the results of the study, reads the Oxford statement.

How many other vaccine candidates are under investigation?

By some estimates, over 40 vaccine candidates are in various stages of development around the world. Until the Oxford announcement, one of the most promising candidates was believed to be one developed by Moderna, a biotechnology company, that is now into phase I clinical trials under the aegis of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH).

UNITED STATES: On March 16, the day the first participant was enrolled in the trial for the Moderna vaccine candidate, the NIH said in a statement: A Phase 1 clinical trial evaluating an investigational vaccine designed to protect against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) has begun at Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI) in Seattle. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, is funding the trial The open-label trial will enroll 45 healthy adult volunteers ages 18 to 55 years over approximately 6 weeks. The first participant received the investigational vaccine today. The trial is looking at the safety of the vaccine and its efficiency in actually generating an immune response.

According to a current report filed by Moderna with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, a commercially-available vaccine is not likely to be available for at least 12-18 months, it is possible that under emergency use, a vaccine could be available to some people, possibly including healthcare professionals, in the fall of 2020.

HONG KONG: Another candidate vaccine is being tested by Hong Kong-listed biotech firm CanSino Biologics. Having started after the NIH trials, the company last week announced that phase I trials have been cleared and the vaccine is moving into phase II of the trial based on the preliminary safety data of the Phase I clinical trial. The results of that trial have not been made public.

Dont miss from Explained | Can novel coronavirus spread through wastewater?

Like the Oxford vaccine, this too is an adenovirus-based vaccine. The double-blind, placebo-controlled study in 500 healthy patients will be done in association with researchers form the Academy of Military Medical Sciences Institute of Biotechnology.

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Covid-19 vaccine: Search, progress - The Indian Express

Physical and occupational therapists carry bags of personal protective equipment on their way to the room of a COVID-19 patient in a Stamford Hospital intensive care unit in Stamford, Conn., on April 24. This "prone team" turns over COVID-19 to help them breathe. John Moore/Getty Images hide caption

Physical and occupational therapists carry bags of personal protective equipment on their way to the room of a COVID-19 patient in a Stamford Hospital intensive care unit in Stamford, Conn., on April 24. This "prone team" turns over COVID-19 to help them breathe.

Intensive care teams inside hospitals are rapidly altering the way they care for patients with COVID-19.

The changes range from new protective gear to new treatment protocols aimed at preventing deadly blood clots.

"Things are moving so fast within this pandemic, it's hard to keep up" says Dr. Angela Hewlett, an infectious diseases physician at University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha and medical director of the Nebraska Biocontainment Unit. To stay current, she says, ICUs are updating their practices "on an hourly basis."

"We are learning at light speed about the disease," says Dr. Craig Coopersmith , interim director of the critical care center at Emory University. "Things that previously might have taken us years to learn, we're learning in a week or two. Things that might have taken us a month to learn beforehand, we're learning in a day or two."

The most obvious changes involve measures to protect ICU doctors, nurses and staff from the virus.

"There is a true and real probability of infection," says Dr. Tiffany Osborn a critical care specialist at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. "You have to think about everything you touch as if it burned."

So ICUs are adapting measures used at special biocontainment units like the one at the University of Nebraska. These units were designed to care for patients affected by bioterrorism or infected with particularly hazardous communicable diseases like SARS and Ebola.

The Nebraska biocontainment unit "received several patients early on in the pandemic who were medically evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship," Hewlett says. But it didn't have enough beds for the large numbers of local patients who began arriving at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

So the nurses, respiratory therapists and physicians from the biocontainment team have "fanned out and are now working within those COVID units to make sure that all of our principles and protocols are followed there as well," Hewlett says.

Those protocols involve measures like monitoring ICU staff when they remove their protective gear to make sure the virus isn't transmitted, and placing infected patients in negative pressure rooms, which draw air inward, when possible to prevent the virus from escaping.

One of the riskiest ICU procedures is inserting a breathing tube in a COVID-19 patient's airway, which creates a direct path for virus to escape from a patient's lungs. "If you're intubating a patient, that's a much higher risk than, say, going in and doing routine patient care," Hewlett says.

So ICU teams are being advised to add several layers of protection beyond a surgical mask.

Extra personal protective equipment may include an N95 respirator, goggles, a full face shield, a head hood, an impermeable isolation gown and double gloves.

In many ICUs, teams are also placing a clear plastic box or sheet over the patient's head and upper body before inserting the tube. And as a final safety measure, the doctor may guide the tube using a video camera rather than looking directly down a patient's airway.

"It usually takes 30 minutes or so in order to get all of that equipment together, to get all of the right people there," says Dr. Kira Newman, a senior resident physician at UW Medical Center in Seattle. "and that would be a particularly fast intubation."

But most changes in the ICU are in response to an ongoing flood of new information about how COVID-19 affects the body.

There's a growing understanding, for example, that the infection can cause dangerous blood clots to form in many severely ill patients. These clots can kill if they block arteries supplying the lungs or brain. But they also can prevent blood from reaching the kidneys or even a patient's arms and legs.

Clots are a known risk for all ICU patients, Cooperman says, but the frequency and severity appears much greater with COVID-19. "So we're starting them on a higher level of medicine to prevent blood clots and if somebody actually develops blood clots, we have a plan B and a plan C and a plan D," he says.

ICU teams are also recalibrating their approach to ensuring that patients are getting enough oxygen. Early in the pandemic, the idea was to put patients on mechanical ventilator quickly to make sure their oxygen levels didn't fall too far.

But with experience, doctors have found that mechanical ventilators don't seem to work as well for COVID patients as they do for patients with other lung problems. They've also learned that that many COVID-19 patients remain lucid and relatively comfortable even when the oxygen levels in their blood are extremely low.

So many specialists are now recommending alternatives to mechanical ventilation, even for some of the sickest patients. "We're really trying now to not intubate," Osborn says.

Instead, ICU teams are relying on devices that deliver oxygen through the nasal passages, or through a mask that fits tightly over the face. And there's renewed interest in an old technique to help patients breathe. It's called proning.

"Instead of them being on their back, we're turning them on their front," Osborn says. The reason, she says is to open up a part of the lung that is collapsed when a patient is on their back.

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ICUs Transformed To Care For COVID-19 Patients : Shots - Health News - NPR

SIOUX CITY (KTIV) -- Seaboard Triumph Foods has confirmed a total of 34 of its employees have tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus.

In an official release sent out on Tuesday, the company said two of those employees have recovered from the virus. The company said they have been released by their doctor or local health department and have been cleared to come back to work.

Seaboard Triumph Foods said when they are notified of a positive case in their Sioux City plant, they identify where that person was assigned to and immediately notify anyone who may have been in contact with that positive case.

The company said they continue to encourage employees to stay home if they feel sick.

Some of the measures the company has put in place to help combat the spread of the virus are:

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Seaboard Triumph Foods confirms 34 employees have tested positive for COVID-19 - KTIV