The American vaccine produced by Moderna is still waiting for approval, Anthony Fauci once again predicts an increase in the number of cases in the USA, and in the UK, shops want to be allowed to stay open longer during the Christmas period. This and other news about the development of the coronavirus pandemic can be found in our daily review.
According to Johns Hopkins University, the total number of Covid-19 cases worldwide is 62.8 million, with over 1.4 million deaths. During the pandemic, more than 40.2 million infected people have recovered.
Moderna Inc. has filed for approval of its experimental vaccine mRNA-1273 in the United States and Europe. The main criteria that regulators will consider are efficacy and safety. Previously, Moderna said its drug showed an efficacy of 94.5% in the final stage of testing. Clinical trials were conducted on 30,000 volunteers, including the elderly as the most vulnerable group. 15,000 people received the actual vaccine, and only 11 of them subsequently developed a mild form of COVID-19. The other half received a placebo, and COVID-19 was detected in 185 people, many in a severe form.
Another developer of the vaccine, Pfizer, has already applied for a license in the United States. The FDA is also reviewing an application for another coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca in collaboration with scientists at the University of Oxford. A vaccine called “Sputnik V” has also been developed in Russia and is awaiting completion of clinical trials.
The scientific resource ScienceAlert publishes data on a method to help doctors determine who among Covid-19 patients needs the most help. Scientists say this is important because intensive care units around the world are once again filling up with Covid patients, and sometimes there are not enough beds to go around. Now, a new program is helping to set priorities by analyzing the results of lung CT scans and patient data.
We explain quickly, simply, and clearly what happened, why it matters, and what will happen next. Episodes End of story. Podcast advertising. Previously, artificial intelligence had already been trained to identify Covid-19-induced lung inflammation with a 90% probability. Now, however, the CT data is combined with detailed information about the patient, such as age, background, cardiovascular status and key indicators of body function. As a result, the computer can predict whether a person will need to be admitted to the intensive care unit. The new algorithm has not yet been tested on a large scale: it has been tested on 295 patients in the United States, Iran and Italy. But even at this early stage, the program was able to predict in 96% of cases when a person with Covid-19 needed to be sent to intensive care.
Meanwhile, the rate of disease spread is increasing in some regions of the world. The situation in Brazil and Mexico continues to worsen. In these Latin American countries, 24,400 and 6,388 new cases were reported in the past day, respectively. At least eight inmates died and more than 50 people, including two guards, were injured in a prison riot in Sri Lanka. The inmates demanded immediate release, fearing the spread of the coronavirus. The Italian government has approved a new 8 billion euro aid package for businesses amid the second wave of the pandemic. Canada will also announce its plans to help businesses on Monday.
This year, most Christmas markets in Germany are set up so that shoppers can shop without leaving their cars. The number of offerings is expected to remain the same. At the same time, German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said that government subsidies for companies cannot continue indefinitely, and that people themselves must do much more to contain the virus. According to the minister, the number of new infections in some regions of the country is still very high, and the key to improving the situation is to temporarily avoid non-essential social contacts.
The authorities in the United Kingdom intend to allow shops to remain open longer than usual over the Christmas period and throughout January. On December 2, the country will come out of the second lockdown, but restrictions of varying severity will remain in place throughout the country.
The Scientific Council of the French Government recommends prioritizing vaccination in nursing homes as soon as the first doses of vaccine arrive in the country. The chief epidemiologist of the USA, Anthony Fauci, believes that in the near future the country will face a sharp increase in the number of infected people due to Americans traveling for Thanksgiving holidays.
Last week, U.S. airports saw their highest levels of passenger activity since mid-March. Traditionally, the week following the holiday is the busiest week of the year for domestic travel. Last year, approximately 26 million passengers passed through U.S. airports during this period. This year, doctors urged Americans to celebrate Thanksgiving at home, but airports saw their highest activity since mid-March last week – about 1 million domestic passengers. Last Sunday, the number of new coronavirus cases in the U.S. for November exceeded 4 million, which is double the number of cases in October. In total, more than 13 million people have been infected in the U.S. since the beginning of the pandemic, and more than 266,000 have died.
In Hong Kong, a series of restrictions and strict rules of social distancing will be reintroduced from Wednesday. The authorities of the territory declare the presence of all the signs of the fourth wave of the epidemic. In the last few days, the daily number of new cases has again exceeded 100 people. Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced that all of the city’s 170,000 government employees will work remotely and called on private companies to adopt the same practice. People will only be allowed to go to public places in pairs, as opposed to groups of up to four. Restaurants will also only serve tables for two. Schools, bars and nightclubs will be closed. Gyms and beauty salons will continue to operate, but with significant restrictions. The current fine for violating the rules is HK$2,000 (US$260), but the authorities plan to increase it. A hotline will also be set up for citizens to report quarantine violations. Thanks to effective virus containment measures implemented at the very beginning of the pandemic, Hong Kong (population 7.5 million) has detected just over 6,000 cases of infection and 109 infected people have died during the entire period.