The American company Moderna will begin the final phase of clinical trials for the Covid-19 vaccine on July 27. The company hopes to recruit 30,000 volunteers. Half of them will receive the vaccine, the other half a placebo. According to information on the clinicaltrials.gov website, clinical trials will continue until October 2022. The creators of the vaccine want to find out if it can prevent coronavirus infection and if it can prevent the development of symptoms in those who are already infected. Development is also considered successful if symptoms develop but the vaccine is able to prevent complications.
Earlier, the New England Journal of Medicine published data from the first phase of the trial showing that all 45 participants who received the vaccine developed antibodies against the coronavirus. In addition to Moderna, other companies around the world are involved in vaccine development. These include large pharmaceutical companies such as AstraZeneca and Pfizer. It typically takes several years to develop a vaccine.
In India, the number of new cases continues to rise. According to Johns Hopkins University, the country has been identifying 28,000 infected people per day for the past three days. India ranks third in the world in the number of cases of Covid-19 detected. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the coronavirus has been detected in more than 900,000 people. However, in terms of deaths, India ranks eighth (23.7 thousand).
Different states experienced the peak of the pandemic at different times. In June, for example, the situation was most critical in the city of Delhi and the state of Maharashtra, where the city of Mumbai is located. However, attention has now shifted to the southern states, where authorities have so far managed to contain the spread of the virus. Due to the increase in new cases, the city of Bangalore was placed under quarantine.
In the capital of Japan, Tokyo, 143 new cases have been detected, bringing the total number of infections since the beginning of the pandemic to almost 8.2 thousand. The mayor of the city announced on Twitter that 70% of those infected are people between the ages of 20 and 40. Many of them contracted the coronavirus after visiting the district’s bars and nightclubs. The Moliere Theater in downtown Tokyo became the epicenter of a recent outbreak. Authorities have contacted the audience who attended the show in early July, about 800 people. They are being asked to undergo COVID-19 testing.
In the United States, two hairdressers with coronavirus served 139 clients before learning of their diagnosis. However, they were found not to have infected any of them.
The salon in the city of Springfield, Missouri, where they worked implemented safety measures: the distance between chairs was increased and, most importantly, hairdressers and clients were required to wear masks. When the infection of two hairdressers became known, the authorities offered their colleagues and clients a free COVID-19 test. 67 people were tested and in all cases the results were negative. All employees and customers who could have been infected were self-isolated for two weeks, during which time no one developed any symptoms.
Scientists are discovering new features of the coronavirus that are both strange and dangerous: carriers of Covid-19 who show no symptoms are sustaining the pandemic.