Tag Archives: COVID-19

Moscow locks down as Russian COVID-19 deaths surge to new highs

By Tom Balmforth and Andrew Osborn

MOSCOW (Reuters) -The Russian capital brought in its strictest COVID-19 related lockdown measures in more than a year on Thursday as nationwide one-day pandemic deaths and infections hit new highs amid slow vaccination take-up across the world’s biggest country.

Moscow’s partial lockdown, in which only essential shops like pharmacies and supermarkets are allowed to remain open and schools and state kindergartens are shut, comes ahead of a week-long nationwide workplace shutdown from Oct. 30.

Like Moscow, some regions decided to kick off their partial lockdowns on Thursday or even earlier in an effort to cut infection numbers ahead of the nationwide initiative.

Moscow’s residents are allowed to leave their homes unlike a sweeping lockdown in summer 2020, but the new measures point to rising concern among officials over record numbers of deaths that the Kremlin has blamed on vaccine hesitancy.

Officials on Thursday reported an all-time high of 1,159 COVID-19 nationwide deaths in the past 24 hours, while the number of daily infections broke through the 40,000 barrier for the first time.

At the State Duma lower house of parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker, proposed requiring all lawmakers to get vaccinated and suggested that stragglers should have to work remotely.

“Imagine the consequences for the country if parliament stops working,” Volodin told the lower house. “Every day we’re seeing how our … colleagues are ending up in hospital beds,” he said.

His proposal was met by angry shouts from the parliament’s chamber with someone calling out: “What kind of PR is this?”

Many Russians have said they are reluctant to get vaccinated and have spurned the four vaccines Russia has registered, including the flagship Sputnik V vaccine.

Some people say they are hesitant due to mistrust of the authorities, while others cite concerns about the safety of vaccines.

As of Oct. 22, official data showed that 49.1 million Russians were fully vaccinated. The total population, excluding annexed Crimea, is officially estimated at around 144 million.

AD CAMPAIGN RELAUNCH?

The daily Kommersant newspaper reported on Thursday that the Kremlin planned to revamp the troubled public information campaign about the importance of getting vaccinated.

The new campaign would pay closer attention to Russia’s more than 80 regions and strike a less aggressive and negative tone than previously, the report said.

The existing campaign has often highlighted the risk of death for Russians who decline to get vaccinated rather than linking vaccination to the freedom to be exempt from lockdown-style restrictions, it said.

However, the Kremlin denied it planned to relaunch the ad campaign, but said the strategy was constantly being adjusted and that the campaign would be continued.

Many Russians have decided that now is an ideal time to fly off for a foreign beach holiday instead of hunkering down at home.

There were mixed feelings about the lockdown on the streets of Moscow on Thursday. Some residents like Lyubov Machekhina said they thought it would obviously help slow infections.

But others like Mikhail, a Muscovite who did not give his surname, voiced doubts that there would be any real impact without a larger chunk of the population being vaccinated.

“In my opinion, it will change nothing. Perhaps, it will slow down (the spread of cases) a bit, but in fact, without herd immunity – it’s nonsense. I don’t believe it will work.”

(Reporting by Tom Balmforth, Lev Sergeev, Anton Zverev, Gleb Stolyarov and Andrey Ostroukh; editing by Andrew Osborn)

Cuba to welcome tourists as home-grown vaccine drive takes hold

By Marc Frank and Nelson Acosta

HAVANA (Reuters) – Cuba will open its borders and ease entry requirements next month after vaccinating most of its people with home-grown COVID-19 drugs, allowing it to welcome back overseas visitors and giving a shot in the arm to its ailing tourist industry.

Tough restrictions due to the pandemic, a drastic reduction in flights to Cuba, and a U.S. ban on most travel to the Communist-run island under former U.S. President Donald Trump have hobbled the business and left it trailing behind regional competitors such as the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas and Cancun.

But as Nov. 15, Cuba will only require visitors to carry proof of vaccination or a recent PCR to enter the country, replacing what were previously among the strictest protocols in the Caribbean, involving a quarantine period and multiple PCR tests.

A fully vaccinated population will prove a key selling point for an island already well-regarded for its safety, beaches and turquoise waters, said Francisco Camps, who supervises Spanish firm Sol Melia’s 32 hotels in Cuba.

“Cuba will be one of the safest sanitary destinations and we believe that we can reach visitations similar to 2019 by the end of next year,” he said.

Cuba’s home-grown vaccines are currently under review by the World Health Organization and most trial data has yet to be peer reviewed.

But among countries with more than 1 million people, Cuba is vaccinating faster than any other, according to a Reuters tally of official data.

The government says the pace is paying dividends, with COVID-19 cases and deaths falling off at least 80% since their peak mid-summer. At least 90% of the population has received at least one dose of one of the country’s three-dose homegrown vaccines.

“We are in a favorable moment as we begin to recover our customs, to be able to visit relatives and go on vacation, as well as improve economic activity,” Tourism Minister Juan Carlos Garcia said this month.

The pandemic closed schools, entertainment venues and restaurants as it reduced to near zero the all-important tourism industry – freezing foreign trips by Cubans and visits to the country from Cubans living overseas – exacerbating an economic crisis that has left residents short of food and medicine.

Cuba received more than four million tourists in 2019, contributing 10.6 percent to gross domestic product (GDP), and much more through supply chains and informal economic activity.

But this year just 200,000 guests have arrived and only another 100,000 are expected, Minister Garcia said.

Cuban economist Ricardo Torres said those numbers meant a “devastating” 92% drop in tourism this year, compared to 2019.

“So we are talking about next year for any real tourism recovery…which generates a knock-on effect and so is decisive to economic recovery,” said Torres, a visiting professor at American University in Washington.

The U.S. embargo sharply limits trade with Cuba, so the country depends heavily on flows of foreign currency and basic goods that travelers and the Cuban diaspora bring to the island.

Despite mounting optimism as tourism resumes, officials have cautioned economic recovery will be more gradual than initially thought following a sharp drop of 10.9% last year and another 2% through June.

The Varadero beach resort is already partially open, including for the domestic market, for which it is the favorite destination.

And life is slowly returning to the colonial district of Havana as it prepares to once more welcome visitors after a 19-month hiatus.

“Old Havana has been sad all this time because there have been no tourists,” said Ernesto Alejandro Labrada, owner of the Antojos restaurant, now packed with Cubans enjoying a meal before the visitors return.

(Reporting by Marc Frank; additional reporting by Nelson Acosta, editing by Dave Sherwood and Angus MacSwan)

U.S. FDA advisers weigh Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in children

By Manas Mishra and Michael Erman

(Reuters) -An expert panel will weigh authorization of Pfizer Inc and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for U.S. children aged 5 to 11 on Tuesday as it prepares to vote on a recommendation for the federal Food and Drug Administration.

An authorization is an important regulatory step toward reaching about 28 million children of these ages, most of them back in school for in-person learning.

The FDA need not follow the advice of its outside experts, but usually does.

While children rarely become seriously ill or die from COVID-19, some develop complications, and COVID-19 cases in unvaccinated children have risen due to the contagious Delta variant.

The age group is “far from being spared from the harm of COVID-19,” with the virus now one of the top 10 causes of deaths in American children, FDA official Peter Marks told the panel. He said there had been close to 100 deaths in that age group so far, and 1.9 million infections.

“In addition, infections have caused many school closures and disrupted the education and socialization of children,” he said.

FDA staff, in documents posted before the meeting, said the likely vaccine benefits in that age group clearly outweigh the potential harms, including the rare risk of heart inflammation.

Only a few other countries, including China, Cuba and the United Arab Emirates, have cleared COVID-19 vaccines for children in this age group and younger.

Since May, the World Health Organization has been urging rich countries to reconsider plans to vaccinate children and instead donate COVID-19 shots to the COVAX scheme for poorer countries.

The advisers are expected to pay close attention to the rate of the rare cases of heart inflammation called myocarditis that have been linked to both the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccine, particularly in young men.

Pfizer and BioNTech are seeking clearance for a lower, 10-microgram dose version of the vaccine in children, versus 30 micrograms for everyone over the age of 12. The shot has been authorized for ages 12-15 since May and cleared for everyone over 16 since December.

The companies have said their vaccine showed 90.7% efficacy against the coronavirus in a clinical trial of children aged 5 to 11.

After the FDA, a panel to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will make a recommendation on the administration of the vaccine. The director of the agency will make the final call.

Top U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said on Sunday that it was likely the vaccine will be available to children in the first week or two of November.

If the number of myocarditis cases in the younger age group turns out to be similar to that in 12- to 15-year-olds, the hospitalizations prevented for COVID-19 would outnumber those prevented for myocarditis in most scenarios analyzed, FDA staff reviewers said.

“No matter what size of the safety database, there will always be uncertainties regarding benefits and risks, including for example, the risk of vaccine-associated myocarditis,” said Doran Fink, the FDA’s deputy director for vaccine development.

These uncertainties have to be addressed in surveillance data and studies following authorization, Fink told the panel.

Pediatric vaccinations are an important public health tool to prevent infectious diseases, even ones that do not cause high rates of mortality or hospitalization for children.

(Reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru and Michael Erman in New Jersey; Editing by Caroline Humer, Richard Chang and Jonathan Oatis)

New York City police union files lawsuit to block vaccine mandate

By Kanishka Singh

(Reuters) – New York City’s police union filed a lawsuit on Monday against a vaccine mandate for municipal workers ordered last week by Mayor Bill de Blasio.

The mayor on Wednesday ordered all city employees to show proof of inoculation against COVID-19 or be placed on unpaid leave, drawing the union’s ire.

The Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York said on Twitter that it had filed a suit in the state Supreme Court. It asked the court for a temporary restraining order to halt the mandate while the suit remains pending.

The union added on Twitter that there was “still no written, NYPD-specific policy guidance on how the mandate will be implemented.”

The mayor set a deadline of 5 p.m. this coming Friday for employees to show proof of inoculation to a supervisor. Over 70% of all 160,000 New York City workers, including a similar percentage in the police department, have already received at least one dose, the mayor said.

Patrick Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Association representing the city’s 50,000 active and retired officers, said they should have the opportunity to choose whether to get the vaccine.

De Blasio cited overtime and redeployments as contingency plans should a large contingent of those officers and other unvaccinated city workers refuse to comply with the mandate.

Municipalities, school districts and other jurisdictions throughout the country are grappling with masking and vaccination requirements. The number of new COVID-19 cases has steadily declined in the United States since a surge caused by the Delta variant of the virus during the summer.

De Blasio had said employees will no longer have the option to be regularly tested instead of getting the vaccine, but added the city will still grant medical and religious exemptions.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Howard Goller)

Factbox – Latest on the worldwide spread of the coronavirus

(Reuters) – Moderna Inc said on Monday its COVID-19 vaccine generated a strong immune response in children aged six to 11 years and that it plans to submit the data to global regulators soon.

EUROPE

* The European Union’s drug regulator said it has concluded in its review that Moderna’s COVID-19 booster vaccine may be given to people aged 18 years and above, at least six months after the second dose.

** Russia reported a record high number of daily COVID-19 cases and some central European countries imposed fresh restrictions on Monday, as a new wave of the pandemic gathered pace.

* Spain reached the grim milestone of 5 million COVID-19 cases during the pandemic.

* The Dutch government may impose new coronavirus restrictions to reduce pressure on hospitals struggling to deal with a swelling number of COVID-19 patients.

AMERICAS

* U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday signed an order imposing new vaccine requirements for most foreign national air travelers and lifting severe travel restrictions on China, India and much of Europe effective Nov. 8.

* The Biden administration said it will invest $70 million to boost the availability and lower costs of rapid, over-the-counter COVID-19 tests in the United States.

* Venezuela reopened public schools and universities which serve more than 11 million students, though some schools remained closed for repairs or because of lack of staff.

ASIA-PACIFIC

* China’s latest COVID-19 outbreak is increasingly likely to spread further, a health official said on Sunday, as authorities urged all regions to step up monitoring and called for a reduction in travel across provinces.

* Competitors in the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics will be subject to daily tests for COVID-19 and will be required to remain in a closed loop that includes transport between the various games venues.

* Indonesia is “finalizing” a deal with Merck & Co to procure its experimental antiviral pills to treat COVID-19 ailments.

MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA

* South Africa’s Aspen Pharmacare is aiming to ramp up its COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing capacity to 1.3 billion doses a year by February 2024, up from a current annual output of around 250 million doses, the company’s CEO told Reuters.

* Namibia will suspend its rollout of Russia’s Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, days after the drugs regulator in neighboring South Africa flagged concerns about its safety for people at risk of HIV.

MEDICAL DEVELOPMENTS

* Scientists at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the likely benefits of giving the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to 5 to 11 year old’s clearly outweigh the risks of rare cases of heart inflammation.

* COVID-19 patients who require surgery appear to face fewer complications if they have previously been vaccinated against the flu, new data suggest.

* U.S. drugmaker Merck & Co Inc said the European Union’s drug regulator has initiated a real-time review of its experimental COVID-19 antiviral drug for adults.

ECONOMIC IMPACT

* Global equity markets rose, while U.S. Treasury yields dipped as investors were buoyed by a better-than-expected U.S. corporate earnings season that kicks into gear this week.

* The European Union disbursed 600 million euros ($698 million) to Ukraine, the second tranche of an aid program to help its eastern European neighbor through the economic shock of the pandemic.

(Compiled by Aditya Soni and Uttaresh. V; Editing by Anil D’Silva and Arun Koyyur)

Biden signs order imposing new international travel vaccine rules, lifting restrictions

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday signed an order imposing new vaccine requirements for most foreign national air travelers and lifting severe travel restrictions on China, India and much of Europe effective Nov. 8, the White House said.

The extraordinary U.S. travel restrictions were first imposed in early 2020 to address the spread of COVID-19. The rules bar most non-U.S. citizens who within the last 14 days have been in the United Kingdom, the 26 Schengen countries in Europe without border controls, Ireland, China, India, South Africa, Iran and Brazil.

“It is in the interests of the United States to move away from the country-by-country restrictions previously applied during the COVID-19 pandemic and to adopt an air travel policy that relies primarily on vaccination to advance the safe resumption of international air travel to the United States,” Biden’s proclamation says.

The White House confirmed that children under 18 are exempt from the new vaccine requirements as are people with some medical issues. Non-tourist travelers from about 50 countries with nationwide vaccination rates of less than 10% will also be eligible for exemption from the rules. Those receiving an exemption will generally need to be vaccinated if they intend to remain in the United States for more than 60 days.

The White House first disclosed on Sept. 20 it would remove restrictions in early November for fully vaccinated air travelers from 33 countries.

The Biden administration also detailed requirements airlines must follow to confirm foreign travelers have been vaccinated before boarding U.S.-bound flights.

One concern among U.S. officials and airlines is making sure foreign travelers are aware of the new vaccine rules that will take effect in just two weeks.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is issuing on Monday new contact tracing rules requiring airlines to collect information from international air passengers as needed “to follow up with travelers who have been exposed to COVID-19 variants or other pathogens.”

The CDC said this month it would accept any vaccine authorized for use by U.S. regulators or the World Health Organization and will accept mixed-dose coronavirus vaccines from travelers.

Foreign air travelers will need to provide vaccination documentation from an “official source” and airlines must confirm the last dose was at least two weeks earlier than the travel date.

International air travelers will need to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test taken within 72 hours of departure. The White House said unvaccinated Americans and foreign nationals receiving exemptions will need to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test within 24 hours of departing.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Chizu Nomiyama)

Toronto says police not vaccinated by Nov 30 will be put on unpaid leave

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Members of Toronto’s police, the largest municipal force in Canada, will be placed on unpaid leave if they do not provide proof of complete inoculation against COVID-19 by Nov. 30, officials said on Thursday.

The move is the latest announcement in a crackdown by professional bodies across Canada. The police force said 90% of members had disclosed their vaccine status and of those, 94% had received two shots.

The Toronto Police Service employs over 5,500 officers and more than 2,200 civilian staff.

“Effective on November 30, 2021, any member … who has not disclosed their vaccination status or is not fully vaccinated against COVID-19 will have rendered themselves unable to perform their duties. These members will be placed on an indefinite unpaid absence,” it said in a statement.

“The safety of our workplaces and the health of our members is of critical importance to the Service.”

Canada’s federal Liberal government said earlier this month it would place unvaccinated federal employees on unpaid leave if they had not proved their inoculation status by Oct 29.

Public broadcaster Canadian Broadcasting Corp said on Thursday it had set a Dec. 1 deadline for all staff, contractors, producers, vendors and guests to be fully vaccinated.

Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children placed 147 of its employees on unpaid leave on Thursday for failing to submit proof of full inoculation, a spokeswoman said.

The Ottawa Hospital, one of the biggest in Canada, has told 318 staff they will be put on unpaid leave unless they get fully vaccinated by Nov. 1, a spokesman told CTV news on Thursday.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Bill Berkrot)

U.S. appeals court rules against nursing homes over COVID-19 lawsuits

By Tom Hals

(Reuters) – In a setback to nursing-home operators facing hundreds of COVID-19 negligence and wrongful-death lawsuits, a federal appeals court on Wednesday said cases against two New Jersey facilities should proceed in state courts.

The nursing homes had argued that the suits against them belonged in federal court, citing an emergency U.S. law known as the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act, which shields those fighting the pandemic from lawsuits.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia affirmed a lower court ruling and rejected the nursing homes’ argument that the PREP Act was so far reaching that families’ state-law negligence claims were really federal claims that belonged in federal court.

The families “asserted only garden-variety state-law claims, so state court is where these cases belong,” the court said.

Neil Lapinski, a Gordon, Fournaris & Mammarella attorney who represented the families, said “the court has provided a clear roadmap for litigants” that was consistent with lower court rulings.

The cases were filed in state court in April 2020 by families of four residents who died of COVID-19. They sued two nursing homes operating as Andover Subacute & Rehabilitation I & II, alleging the facilities failed to take precautions to contain the spread of the virus.

The cases were among the first against nursing homes, where more than 100,000 people died during the pandemic. Like hundreds of similar wrongful death claims against care facilities, the cases stalled over which court should hear the lawsuit.

The operator said it was shielded by the PREP Act and the cases belonged in federal court. A lower federal court, however, said the case should be heard in state court, and the nursing home operator appealed.

The 2005 PREP Act is meant to jumpstart U.S. defenses against an outbreak like COVID-19 by shielding from lawsuits makers of critical products, from diagnostic tests to vaccines, as well as doctors and drug distributors. Nursing homes have said the law should shield them from liability because they were on the front line of the outbreak.

Wednesday’s ruling could help get cases moving, said Adam Pulver of Public Citizen Litigation Group, a consumer advocacy group that filed an amicus brief with the appeals court.

“By being the first appeals court to weigh in, the 3rd Circuit signaled to judges around the country that these appeals are unlikely to succeed and there is no reason to stop cases from moving forward while the nursing homes appeal,” he said.

The 3rd Circuit’s ruling said determining whether the PREP Act shields nursing homes from pandemic-related lawsuits should be determined by a state court, although other federal appeals courts are expected to address that question in the coming months.

Lann McIntyre, a Lewis Brisbois attorney who represented the nursing homes, declined to comment.

The appeal was heard by three Republican appointees – Michael Chagares, Jane Roth and David Porter, who was appointed by President Donald Trump and who wrote the opinion.

(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Bill Berkrot)

Russia reports cases of more contagious COVID-19 Delta subvariant

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russia has reported “isolated cases” of COVID-19 with a subvariant of the Delta variant that is believed to be even more contagious, the state consumer watchdog’s senior researcher said on Thursday.

The researcher, Kamil Khafizov, said the AY.4.2 subvariant may be around 10% more infectious than the original Delta – which has driven new cases and deaths to a series of record daily highs in Russia – and could ultimately replace it.

However, he said this was likely to be a slow process.

“The vaccines are effective enough against this version of the virus, which is not so different as to dramatically change the ability to bind to antibodies,” he said.

The AY.4.2 subvariant is also on an increasing trajectory in England and had already accounted for about 6% of all sequences generated on the week beginning Sept. 27, a UK Health Security Agency report released on Oct. 15 said.

British Health Minister Sajid Javid on Wednesday said there was no reason to believe the subvariant posed a greater threat than Delta.

Russian immunologist Nikolay Kryuchkov said Delta and its subvariants would remain dominant and might in the future adapt in some ways to vaccines, especially where vaccination rates are below or just above 50%.

“But it seems to me that a revolutionary jump will not happen, because the coronavirus, like any organism, has an evolutionary limit, and the evolutionary jump has already happened,” he said.

The Russian health ministry had no immediate comment.

Moscow’s mayor on Thursday announced the strictest lockdown measures since June of last year, a day after President Vladimir Putin approved a government proposal for a week-long workplace shutdown at the start of November.

(Reporting by Maxim Rodionov, Polina Nikolskaya and Angelina Kazakova; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Giles Elgood)

Children with mild COVID-19 may not develop antibodies; oral vaccine booster shows promise in monkey study

By Nancy Lapid

(Reuters) – The following 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.

Children with mild COVID-19 may lack antibodies afterward

Children who contract a mild case of COVID-19 may not develop antibodies to the virus afterward, a study from Australia suggests. Researchers compared 57 children and 51 adults with mild COVID-19 or asymptomatic infections. Only 37% of children appeared to develop antibodies, compared to 76% of adults – even though viral loads were similar in the two groups, researchers found. Children’s bodies also did not appear to produce second-line cellular immune responses to the virus in the same way as adults, said study leader Paul Licciardi of Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne. The participants in the study were all infected in 2020, his team reported on Monday on medRxiv ahead of peer review. “Whether this also happens for the current circulating variant (Delta) requires further investigation, as well as studies to understand why children are less likely to produce antibody responses following SARS-CoV-2 infection,” Licciardi said. “Whether this means children are susceptible to re-infection is not known.”

Experimental oral COVID-19 vaccine shows promise in monkeys

A COVID-19 booster vaccine that can be given by mouth to people who already have antibodies from vaccination or prior infection has yielded promising results in monkeys and is likely to be tested soon in humans, according to the company developing it. The oral booster uses traditional vaccine technology in which a harmless carrier virus delivers coronavirus proteins into cells on the surface of the tongue, or lining of the cheeks and throat, stimulating production of antibodies that can block the virus before it gets a foothold in the body, said Dr. Stephen Russell, chief executive of Vyriad in Rochester, Minnesota, who led the study. “Not only would an oral COVID-19 vaccine be more convenient and acceptable… but it might also lead to better immunity because it is being administered to the site where the COVID-19 virus typically comes into the body,” he added. In monkeys at one week after vaccinations, antibody levels increased by nearly 100-fold, with no side effects, Russell said. A report of the study posted on Monday on bioRxiv ahead of peer review says Vyriad is working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to plan human trials.

Plants may be useful in vaccine production

Plants could someday be used to produce COVID-19 vaccines, according to researchers who are developing a nasal spray vaccine. Vaccines work by delivering antigens, which are replicas of pieces of virus or bacteria that train the immune system to recognize the invader and defend against it. Vaccine antigens are typically produced in cells from mammals, but previous studies have suggested that producing them in tobacco-related Nicotiana benthamiana plants would be less expensive and safer. In the current lab study, posted on Monday on bioRxiv ahead of peer review, COVID-19 survivors’ antibodies recognized and responded to the coronavirus antigen produced in the plants “in the same way that they recognize a standard antigen produced in mammalian cells,” said study leader Allyson MacLean of the University of Ottawa. The intra-nasal vaccine is not meant to replace conventional (injected) vaccines, but rather to add another layer of protection by stimulating immune system protection in the airways, where the virus first attaches itself,” MacLean said. “We imagine the nasal-spray being used to top-up immune protection when traveling or going to events with large numbers of people.”

(Reporting by Nancy Lapid; Editing by Bill Berkrot)