Tag Archives: COVID-19

South Africa detects new coronavirus variant, still studying its mutations

By Alexander Winning

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South African scientists have detected a new coronavirus variant with multiple mutations but are yet to establish whether it is more contagious or able to overcome the immunity provided by vaccines or prior infection.

The new variant, known as C.1.2, was first detected in May and has now spread to most South African provinces and to seven other countries in Africa, Europe, Asia and Oceania, according to research which is yet to be peer-reviewed.

It contains many mutations associated in other variants with increased transmissibility and reduced sensitivity to neutralizing antibodies, but they occur in a different mix and scientists are not yet sure how they affect the behavior of the virus. Laboratory tests are underway to establish how well the variant is neutralized by antibodies.

South Africa was the first country to detect the Beta variant, one of only four labelled “of concern” by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Beta is believed to spread more easily than the original version of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, and there is evidence vaccines work less well against it, leading some countries to restrict travel to and from South Africa.

PANDEMIC ‘FAR FROM OVER’

Richard Lessells, an infectious disease specialist and one of the authors of the research on C.1.2, said its emergence tells us “this pandemic is far from over and that this virus is still exploring ways to potentially get better at infecting us.”

He said people should not be overly alarmed at this stage and that variants with more mutations were bound to emerge further into the pandemic.

Genomic sequencing data from South Africa show the C.1.2 variant was still nowhere near displacing the dominant Delta variant in July, the latest month for which a large number of samples was available.

In July C.1.2 accounted for 3% of samples versus 1% in June, whereas Delta accounted for 67% in June and 89% in July.

Delta is the fastest and fittest variant the world has encountered, and it is upending assumptions about COVID-19 even as nations loosen restrictions and reopen their economies.

Lessells said C.1.2 may have more immune evasion properties than Delta, based on its pattern of mutations, and that the findings had been flagged to the WHO.

A spokesman for South Africa’s health department declined to comment on the research.

South Africa’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign got off to a slow start, with only around 14% of its adult population fully vaccinated so far.

(Reporting by Alexander Winning; Editing by Tim Cocks and Gareth Jones)

Genes may add to ethnic COVID-19 disparities; sickest patients unwell a year later

By Nancy Lapid

(Reuters) – Here is a summary of some recent studies on COVID-19. They include research that warrants further study to corroborate the findings and that have yet to be certified by peer review.

Genes may explain some ethnic differences in COVID-19 impact

The varying impacts of COVID-19 among ethnic groups might be partially due to genetic differences in the cell-surface protein the virus uses as a gateway, an international research team found. They analyzed genetic information from more than 85,000 volunteers, including 6,274 who were tested for the new coronavirus and 1,837 who tested positive. In the gene for ACE2 – the “receptor” protein through which the virus breaks into cells – they found rare variants that would alter the part of the protein to which the virus attaches itself. These variant genes “appear to vary in frequency between different ethnic groups,” said Jamal Nasir of the University of Northampton in the UK. Two were more common in Europeans than in East Asians, for example. Nasir and colleagues also found variants that appear to increase or decrease an individual’s ACE2 protein levels, which could affect vulnerability to infection, or severity. People who were not infected with the coronavirus were more likely to have a variant that decreases ACE2 levels, according to a report posted on Wednesday on medRxiv ahead of peer review. The next steps, Nasir said, are to confirm the findings by exposing human cells to the virus in lab experiments and to identify small molecules that can be used as drugs to block harmful genetic mutations’ effects.

Severe COVID-19 still affects patients a year later

Among 1,276 COVID-19 patients hospitalized in China early in the pandemic, 49% still had at least one symptom 12 months after first becoming ill, researchers reported on Friday in The Lancet. Most common were fatigue or muscle weakness. About a third still had shortness of breath or other lung problems, especially those who had been the most severely ill. In some patients, doctors saw a reduced flow of oxygen from the lungs to the bloodstream. Roughly one in four survivors reported depression. Among patients who had been employed before they were hospitalized, 88% had returned to work by 12 months – but overall, the survivors were not as healthy as people from the community who had not been infected with the coronavirus. The study only looked at patients from one hospital, and not many of them had been sick enough to require intensive care. Nevertheless, the fact that some patients still had symptoms “should be taken into account when planning delivery of healthcare services post-pandemic,” coauthor Bin Cao from the China-Japan Friendship Hospital said in a statement.

Pfizer vaccine safe in small study of very sick kids

In adolescents with serious neurological conditions, the side effects of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine are likely to be mild to moderate and clear up quickly, a small study suggests. The 27 children in the study, ages 12 to 15, had muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, or other neurological diseases, plus other conditions such as heart defects and immune deficiency – all of which put them at very high risk for severe COVID-19. They would not have been included in the main trials of the vaccine because they were too sick, the researchers said. Eleven children had averse events after the first or second dose, such as mild rash, fever, headache, gastrointestinal upset, difficulty sleeping, and low blood sugar. Most problems resolved within 72 hours, and the rest cleared up within a week, according to a report published on Thursday in Archives of Disease in Childhood. Although the study involved only a few children, “these data are especially important as they are representative of the children who are most likely to benefit from vaccination, and parents and clinicians may have concerns regarding an increased risk of unexpected events,” the authors said.

(Reporting by Nancy Lapid; Editing by Tiffany Wu)

U.S. coronavirus hospitalizations hit eight-month high over 100,000

By Anurag Maan

(Reuters) -The number of coronavirus patients in U.S. hospitals has breached 100,000, the highest level in eight months, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, as a resurgence of COVID-19 spurred by the highly contagious Delta variant strains the nation’s health care system.

A total of 101,433 COVID patients were hospitalized, according to data published on Friday morning.

U.S. COVID-19 hospitalizations have more than doubled in the past month. Over the past week, more than 500 people with COVID were admitted to hospitals each hour on average, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The United States reached its all-time peak for hospitalizations on Jan. 14 when there were over 142,000 coronavirus-infected patients in hospital beds, according to HHS.

As the vaccination campaign expanded in early 2021, hospitalizations fell and hit a 2021 low of 16,000 on in late June.

However, COVID-19 admissions rose suddenly in July as the Delta variant became the dominant strain. The U.S. South is the epicenter of the latest outbreak but hospitalizations are rising nationwide.

Florida has the highest number of COVID-19 hospitalized patients, followed by Texas and California, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. More than 95% of intensive care beds are currently occupied in Alabama, Florida and Georgia.

The Delta variant, which is rapidly spreading among mostly the unvaccinated U.S. population, has also sent a record number of children to hospital. There are currently over 2,000 confirmed and suspected pediatric COVID-19 hospitalizations, according to HHS.

Three states – California, Florida and Texas – amount to about 32% of the total confirmed and suspected pediatric COVID-19 hospitalizations in the United States.

Children currently make up about 2.3% of the nation’s COVID-19 hospitalizations. Kids under 12 are not eligible to receive the vaccine.

The country is hoping for vaccine authorization for younger children by autumn with the Pfizer Inc vaccine.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said this week that the nation could get COVID-19 under control by early next year if vaccinations ramp up.

The United States has given at least one dose of vaccine to about 61% of its population, according to the CDC.

The United States, which leads the world in the most deaths and cases, has reported 38.5 million infections and over 634,000 deaths since the pandemic began last year, according to a Reuters tally.

(Reporting by Anurag Maan in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Michael Perry)

U.S. COVID-19 tests again in short supply as infections soar, schools reopen

By Carl O’Donnell

(Reuters) – U.S. companies are scrambling to boost production of coronavirus tests increasingly in short supply as COVID-19 cases soar and schools and employers revive surveillance programs that will require tens of millions of tests, according to industry executives and state health officials.

Test manufacturers including Abbott Laboratories, Becton Dickinson and Co, and Quidel Corp in recent months scaled back production of rapid COVID-19 tests, which can produce results on-site in minutes, as well as test kits that are sent to laboratories for analysis. The move followed a nearly 90% decline in testing and a similarly large drop in COVID-19 cases in the United States.

Abbott in June shut down two production lines in Maine and closed a manufacturing plant in Illinois. Around the same time, Quidel shifted production away from COVID-19 tests. Becton Dickinson had also scaled back production in recent months.

Now, with the Delta variant pushing U.S. COVID-19 cases well above 100,000 per day, test makers are working to quickly reverse course, industry executives and state officials told Reuters.

“We’re hiring people and turning on parts of our manufacturing network that were idled or slowed when guidance changed and demand plunged,” Abbott said in a statement.

However, test makers including Abbott and Becton Dickinson cautioned that there may be supply constraints in the near term.

“With the rise of cases from the Delta variant… there is currently some tightness in supply as manufacturers ramp back up,” said Troy Kirkpatrick, a spokesperson for Becton Dickinson, adding that the company expects inventory levels “will normalize over the next couple of weeks.”

Demand for COVID-19 tests has been largely driven by healthcare providers, employers and schools, he added.

Supplies could tighten even further as more state governments and private employers demand staff either get vaccinated or agree to regular testing. Pfizer Inc and Goldman Sachs are among major employers requiring staff to be regularly tested.

Testing in schools is a top priority for federal and state officials as a minority of the roughly 70 million school-age U.S. children have been vaccinated. Those under 12 are not yet eligible for the shots.

Demand for diagnostic tests has surged nearly six-fold in the past two months, from around 250,000 per day in early July to nearly 1.5 million in mid-August, according to U.S. federal data. The data only tracks diagnostic tests that are run in laboratories.

That demand is only expected to grow.

More than half a dozen states, including California, Delaware, and South Carolina, have set up comprehensive surveillance testing programs for their public K-12 schools, while Pennsylvania and Arkansas are among at least a dozen other states developing similar plans. Even in states without such plans, many local school districts are rolling out surveillance programs.

Ysleta Independent School District in El Paso, Texas, expects to need around 40,000 Abbott rapid tests per month to monitor students for COVID-19, said Lynly Leeper, the district’s chief financial and operational officer.

Her school district had been planning to shut down its testing program until the Delta variant sent cases soaring in the state in recent weeks.

SUPPLY CHAIN CONCERNS

Delaware, which was among the first to roll out a comprehensive surveillance testing program in July, has already begun to see some test shortages, said Dr. Rick Pescatore, an associate medical director in the state’s public health agency.

The surge in test demand has sounded alarms among federal officials, who are “concerned that people are going to start shutting down our supply chain,” limiting the flexibility to respond to a spike in cases, said Quidel Chief Executive Douglas Bryant told Reuters.

The recent increase in surveillance testing “really stresses the supply chain,” said Dana Lerman, medical director at The COVID Consultants, a physicians group that provides COVID-19 testing and advisory services. Her organization has seen demand for rapid tests increase 200% since June.

Even if test makers are able to keep up with rising demand from U.S. schools, states will still face challenges covering the expense of widespread testing, which experts say will cost the average school district at least $1 million each year.

Ysleta in El Paso said it expects it will cost around $3 million to safely test its students this school year, and is relying on Texas to provide it with funds.

The Biden administration granted $10 billion to help states developing COVID-19 testing programs. Experts said the sum is far short of what states will need to cover testing for the full school year.

“More federal funding will be necessary,” said Dr. Antonia Sepulveda, president of the Association of Molecular Pathology that represents diagnostic testing laboratories, “for institutions to continue comprehensive testing programs.”

(Reporting by Carl O’Donnell; Editing by Michele Gershberg, Caroline Humer and Bill Berkrot)

Factbox – Latest on the worldwide spread of the coronavirus

(Reuters) – The World Health Organization’s (WHO) pandemic program plans to ship 100 million doses of Sinovac and Sinopharm COVID-19 shots by the end of next month, mostly to Africa and Asia, in its first delivery of Chinese vaccines, a WHO document showed.

EUROPE

* Britain’s Health Department said it has not made any decision on COVID-19 vaccines for 12 to 15-year-olds after the Telegraph reported the National Health Service planned vaccinations from the first week children return to school in September.

* The British public’s view of the government’s management of the coronavirus crisis has turned negative for the first time since February and they are worried about the risk of a new wave of infections, according to a survey.

* Hundreds of Greek frontline health workers protested against a plan to make COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory for the care sector as infection rates remained high.

* Students and teachers who have not been inoculated against COVID-19 or recovered from the disease will have to take weekly tests, as infections in the country rose to their highest since May.

ASIA-PACIFIC

* Vilified by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party for its high COVID-19 cases, Kerala’s apparent poor record may actually hold crucial lessons for the country in containing the outbreak as authorities brace for a possible third wave of infections.

* Vietnam will deploy troops to industrial Binh Duong province, a major manufacturing hub in the Southeast Asian country, to help contain an expected 50,000 additional coronavirus infections there over the next two weeks, the government said.

* Thailand is in talks with European countries to purchase millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

AMERICAS

* Illinois will require all eligible students and school employees to be vaccinated and re-instituted an indoor mask mandate under an order announced by Governor J.B. Pritzker.

* Public support for stronger measures to require COVID vaccinations is strong, according to a new Reuters/IPSOS poll, but for Detroit automakers the debate over vaccination policy is far from over.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

* A third wave of COVID-19 infections in Africa has stabilized and the continent’s slow vaccination drive has picked up pace, the WHO said.

* Qatar is offering COVID-19 vaccines to evacuees from Afghanistan who are temporarily staying in the Gulf Arab state, which has been facilitating global evacuation efforts since the Taliban seized Kabul.

MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

* Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc said it would start a large study for its experimental COVID-19 vaccine in the next few weeks, after the drugmaker received authorization from Brazil’s regulatory agency.

* Pfizer Inc and BioNTech signed on Brazil’s Eurofarma Laboratorios as a manufacturer of their COVID-19 vaccine doses for Latin America.

* Pfizer said a booster dose of its two-shot COVID-19 vaccine spurs a more than threefold increase in antibodies against the coronavirus, as the company seeks U.S. regulatory approval for a third injection.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

* Global equity markets slipped while U.S. Treasury yields rose to two-week highs on Thursday after two hawkish Federal Reserve officials called for the U.S. central bank to start ending its bond-buying program ahead of a key speech by Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

(Compiled by Aditya Soni and Krishna Chandra Eluri; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Arun Koyyur)

Missouri attorney general sues school districts that mandate masks

(Reuters) – Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against school districts in his state that have required masks for students and teachers, calling the practice in a statement “arbitrary and capricious.”

The lawsuit filed in Boone County Circuit Court named Columbia Public Schools, its school board and its superintendent as defendants but also includes other schools that have issued such mandates.

Columbia’s school district, with about 19,000 pupils in the center of the Midwestern state, issued a mask mandate this month for all students, teachers and staff to protect against a surge in COVID-19 cases.

“We filed this suit today because we fundamentally don’t believe in forced masking, rather that parents and families should have the power to make decisions on masks, based on science and facts,” Schmitt said in a statement.

The lawsuit asked the court to rule the mask mandate is unlawful and to block the district from carrying it out.

The lawsuit is one of several court battles being waged in the United States over masking and COVID vaccinations as educators, parents and lawmakers grapple with another coronavirus surge just as students head back to the classroom.

In Florida, the state Board of Education on Friday ordered two school districts to provide parents with a way to opt out of a requirement that their children wear masks or face having some of their state funding withheld. On Tuesday, the Broward County School Board, which oversees a system of 261,000 students, said it rejected the order.

Columbia Public Schools officials were not available for comment on Tuesday. On Aug. 13, when the district announced the masking requirement, it cited a high rate of transmission of the Delta variant in the community.

“We know not everyone will agree with this decision,” the district said in a statement. “This decision is not a forever decision, but it is a decision that is currently necessary.”

(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; Editing by Chris Reese and David Gregorio)

U.S. data show rising ‘breakthrough’ infections among fully vaccinated

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Some 25% of SARS-CoV-2 infections among Los Angeles County residents occurred in fully vaccinated residents from May through July 25, a period that includes the impact of the highly transmissible Delta variant, U.S. officials reported on Tuesday.

The data, published in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly report on death and disease, shows an increase in so-called “breakthrough” infections among fully vaccinated individuals.

The CDC is relying on data from cohorts, such as the Los Angeles County study, to determine whether Americans need a third dose of COVID-19 vaccines to increase protection. Government scientists last week laid out a strategy for booster doses beginning on Sept. 20, pending reviews from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the CDC.

The new data released on Tuesday involved more than 43,000 reported infections among Los Angeles County residents aged 16 and older. Of them, 10,895, or 25.3%, occurred in fully vaccinated persons, 1,431, or 3.3%, were in partially vaccinated persons, and 30,801, or 71.4%, were in unvaccinated individuals.

The vaccines did, however, protect individuals from more severe cases. According to the study, 3.2% of fully vaccinated individuals who were infected with the virus were hospitalized, just 0.05% were admitted to an intensive care unit and 0.25% were placed on a ventilator.

Among the unvaccinated who fell ill, 7.5% were hospitalized, 1.5% were admitted to an intensive care unit and 0.5% required breathing support with a mechanical ventilator.

In addition to the LA County data, the CDC on Tuesday released an update on the HEROES cohort study among healthcare workers that showed a significant drop in vaccine effectiveness among vaccinated frontline workers in eight states who became infected with the coronavirus.

Vaccine efficacy during the period of the study when Delta was predominant fell to 66% from 91% prior to the arrival of the Delta variant, according to the report.

(Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen, Editing by Mark Porter)

Israel finds COVID-19 vaccine booster significantly lowers infection risk

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – A third dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine has significantly improved protection from infection and serious illness among people aged 60 and older in Israel compared with those who received two shots, findings published by the Health Ministry showed on Sunday.

The data were presented at a meeting of a ministry panel of vaccination experts on Thursday and uploaded to its website on Sunday, though the full details of the study were not released.

The findings were on par with separate statistics reported last week by Israel’s Maccabi healthcare provider, one of several organizations administering booster shots to try to curb the Delta coronavirus variant.

Breaking down statistics from Israel’s Gertner Institute and KI Institute, ministry officials said that among people aged 60 and over, the protection against infection provided from 10 days after a third dose was four times higher than after two doses.

A third jab for over 60-year-olds offered five to six times greater protection after 10 days with regard to serious illness and hospitalization.

That age group is particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 and in Israel was the first to be inoculated when the vaccine drive began in late December.

In recent weeks, the health ministry has said immunity has diminished over time for seniors and younger people as well. Most vaccinated people who fell severely ill in Israel were over 60 and with underlying health conditions.

Israel started administering third jabs to over 60-year-olds on July 30. On Thursday it dropped the age of eligibility for a booster to 40, and included pregnant women, teachers and health care workers below that age. Third doses are given only to those who received their second shot at least five months ago.

The United States has announced plans to offer booster shots to all Americans, citing data showing diminishing protection. Canada, France and Germany have announced booster campaigns.

Fighting an outbreak of the Delta variant since June, Israel presently has one of the world’s highest infection rates per capita. Close to 1.5 million people out of the country’s 9.3 million population have taken a third jab.

(Reporting by Jeffrey Heller and Maayan Lubell; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

Florida Board of Education gives school districts ultimatum on masks

By Maria Caspani

(Reuters) – The Florida Board of Education on Friday told two school districts they would have some of their state funding withheld if they failed within the next 48 hours to provide parents with a way to opt out of a requirement that their children wear masks.

School boards in Broward and Alachua counties have mandated masks in schools in defiance of an executive order issued last month by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis that barred local officials from imposing mask mandates.

Like some other Republican governors, DeSantis has called mask-wearing a personal choice which, for students, should be made by parents.

“These are the initial consequences to their intentional refusal to follow state law and state rule to purposefully and willingly violate the rights of parents,” Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran said in a statement on Friday.

The order was the latest development in the raging debate over mask-wearing in some U.S. states where the coronavirus further exposed deep political fault lines.

Earlier this week, the state Board of Education voted unanimously to punish the two counties for mandating masks.

It said on Friday that both school districts will be required to provide the commissioner of education with information regarding the salaries of school board members within 48 hours.

The Florida Department of Education “will then begin to withhold from state funds, on a monthly basis, an amount equal to 1/12 of the total annual compensation of the school board members who voted to impose the unlawful mask mandates until each district demonstrates compliance,” the statement said.

Florida is battling a resurgence of COVID-19 spurred by the highly contagious Delta variant which is spreading infections mostly among the unvaccinated.

Coronavirus hospitalizations have increased by 28% in the past two weeks, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The state has reported more than 2.91 million COVID-19 cases, trailing only Texas and California.

(Reporting by Maria Caspani in New York; Additional reporting by Anurag Maan in Benagaluru; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

U.S. appeals court panel rejects latest bid to halt CDC eviction moratorium

By Jan Wolfe and David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A federal appeals court on Friday rejected a bid by groups representing landlords to halt the latest moratorium on residential evictions imposed by President Joe Biden’s administration, setting up a U.S. Supreme Court showdown.

In a written order, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied an emergency request by two chapters of the National Association of Realtors to stop the COVID-19 pandemic-related eviction ban set by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The moratorium, implemented after a previous one lapsed at the end of July, is due to expire on Oct. 3.

Realtor groups in Alabama and Georgia were among those challenging the moratorium.

The appellate court’s order sets the stage for the Supreme Court to hear arguments over whether the administration overstepped its authority by issuing the moratorium.

“We are disappointed in today’s ruling, but the plaintiffs will continue fighting on behalf of America’s mom-and-pop housing providers and plan to file an emergency motion to the Supreme Court immediately,” National Association of Realtors spokesman Patrick Newton said in a statement.

A CDC spokeswoman declined to comment.

Under heavy political pressure from Biden’s fellow Democrats, his administration reversed course on Aug. 3 and issued a slightly narrower eviction moratorium three days after the prior one expired. Biden initially had said that congressional action was needed to renew the moratorium, but his administration reversed course.

The current moratorium covers nearly 92% of U.S. counties, but that could change based on COVID-19 conditions.

The CDC first issued a moratorium in September 2020 after a prior one approved by Congress expired, with agency officials saying the policy was needed to combat the spread of COVID-19 and prevent homelessness during the pandemic.

(Reporting by Jan Wolfe and David Shepardson; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)