Turkey is one of the few countries where doctors visit COVID patients in their homes. A group of WHO experts arrived in the Chinese city of Wuhan to investigate the circumstances surrounding the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that caused the pandemic. Scientists in Britain found that the human body maintains immunity for at least five months after the disease, while British tennis player Andy Murray could not fly to the Australian Open after testing positive. This and other news about the state of the coronavirus pandemic around the world – in our daily roundup.
According to Johns Hopkins University, more than 23 million people worldwide have been infected with Covid-19, with nearly 2 million deaths. More than 51 million patients have recovered since the beginning of the pandemic. The Vatican has announced that the current 84-year-old Pope Francis and his predecessor, 93-year-old Benedict XVI, have received their first doses of the vaccine. Previously, Francis had stated that he considered consenting to vaccination to be a moral and ethical duty of every human being, while those opposed to vaccination were individuals living in suicidal denial of reality.
A group of 10 WHO experts has arrived in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the Covid-19 pandemic began, to investigate the origins of the virus. It took several months for WHO and Beijing to agree on the terms of reference. Initially, the scientists plan to collect data from research institute workers, hospital staff and food market vendors in the area where the first outbreak is believed to have occurred. They will also analyze biometric samples taken from patients at different times. But first, they must spend two weeks in quarantine.
The Covid-19 pandemic is believed to have originated in a food market in Wuhan. The arrival of the WHO team coincided with new outbreaks of the disease in northern China. Since the beginning of this week, several regions of the country with a combined population of more than 50 million people have been declared under lockdown. Also on Thursday, the first death from Covid-19 in eight months was reported: a woman in Hebei province. Life in Wuhan is relatively normal at the moment, and the scientists hope that nothing will interfere with their work. China does not deny that the first cases of the disease were detected in Wuhan, but claims that the virus could have originated elsewhere. According to the head of the WHO expert group, Peter Ben Embarek, scientists have a long way to go to understand what actually happened. “I don’t think we will get clear answers to all the questions after this first mission, but this is the beginning of the journey,” he said in an interview with Agence France-Presse.
In the United Kingdom, pharmacies will join the vaccination campaign on Thursday, with the first six pharmacies having already started administering the vaccine. Priority groups such as the elderly, residents of closed institutions, emergency service personnel and healthcare workers will be offered the vaccine first. The number of offers is expected to remain the same.
Pharmacy-based vaccination will also help older people avoid going to hospitals or clinics, where the risk of coronavirus infection is higher. We explain quickly, simply, and clearly what happened, why it matters, and what happens next. Episodes The end of the story. Advertising Podcasts. Since the end of December, about 3 million people across the country have received the first dose of the vaccine, but officials say the campaign is progressing slowly. The original plan was to vaccinate 15 million people from priority groups by mid-February, but that goal now appears unattainable. Small independent pharmacies say they are ready to take on some of the work. From Friday, Britain has decided to temporarily suspend air links with South American countries and Portugal, which has close links with them, due to the newly identified strain of coronavirus discovered in Brazil. The Brazilian variant differs from the mutations from the United Kingdom and South Africa that caused many countries, including Russia, to suspend air travel. The new strains of Covid-19 have a higher rate of transmission from the sick to the healthy. The epidemiological situation in Great Britain is the worst in Europe. In the past day, the highest number of deaths among the infected occurred during the entire pandemic – 1564 people. The country is in lockdown. In London and other major cities, police patrols have become more active to ensure compliance with quarantine measures, and the number of fines issued to violators has increased.
Research conducted by a British public health organization has shown that people who recover from coronavirus maintain immunity for at least five months. At the same time, the likelihood of re-infection is 83% lower than the risk of contracting the disease for the first time. However, the exact length of time the human body maintains immunity remains uncertain.
It is now only possible to be on the London Underground for a very good reason. The study, conducted from June to November last year, tracked data on 6614 UK healthcare workers who contracted coronavirus. Only 44 cases of reinfection were observed. Scientists emphasize that while such statistics may seem promising, a person who has been re-infected can be just as contagious as someone who has been infected for the first time. “If you think you have already had the disease and are now protected, it means that the likelihood of developing severe disease is very low,” explains one of the study’s authors, Susan Hopkins. “But there is still a risk that you could become infected and pass it on to others.” The British authorities emphasize that in light of these conclusions, absolutely everyone should stay at home. Those who have recovered from Covid-19 should be under no illusion that they are in any danger to themselves or others. In addition, the presence of immunity for five months means that people who contracted Covid-19 during the first wave of the pandemic last spring may now be at risk again.
A group of Australian scientists is calling on the government to review its vaccination strategy, saying the vaccine produced by Oxford University and AstraZeneca is not effective enough to create herd immunity. Several immunology specialists, as well as representatives of the opposition Labor Party, have stated that they will seek additional purchases of vaccines from BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna, which have shown higher efficacy in trials. Some health experts are even advocating that the AstraZeneca vaccine be suspended next month. However, this suggestion has been rejected by the authorities in Canberra.
In August last year, the Australian Prime Minister personally inspected AstraZeneca’s laboratories in Sydney. According to the President of the Australian Medical Association (AMA), Andrew Miller, there is currently no additional confirmation that the AstraZeneca vaccine is as effective as others, and there is a risk that herd immunity will not be achieved. Miller urges people to wait before using the vaccine, warning: “Otherwise we will have a good vaccine for the rich and not so good for the poor. He explains that because Australia, unlike the United States and the United Kingdom, has the pandemic situation under control, it can afford to delay in order to justify the community’s hopes and provide the country with the best vaccine. However, Australian authorities continue to insist that the vaccine produced by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca will provide vital protection against the virus and have no intention of changing their plans. “The AstraZeneca vaccine is effective, safe and of high quality,” insists Australia’s chief medical officer, Paul Kelly. Australia has bought 54 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine. Confidence in the drug was somewhat undermined when it was revealed that a mistake had been made in the trials: some volunteers were given one and a half doses instead of two identical doses as required by the protocol – and it was among these volunteers that preliminary data showed the vaccine to be more effective. The protocol called for two doses to provide 62% protection, which is significantly lower than the claimed efficacy of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines (over 90%).
The agency responsible for protecting the personal data of French citizens has protested the use of drones by the country’s Interior Ministry to monitor compliance with quarantine regulations.
Many French people feel that some of the health measures proposed by the authorities are excessive. For example, the mandatory wearing of masks by students in schools. The National Commission on Data Processing and Civil Liberties (CNIL) has described such actions by the Ministry of the Interior as an invasion of privacy, and the use of drones for such purposes as illegal, since the identity of the person photographed can easily be established from drone photos. The CNIL began investigating the police’s actions last May. Its experts found that the Ministry of the Interior did not mask the faces of people who appeared in the footage taken by the drones, in violation of French laws on the protection of personal data. French law enforcement agencies have said they respect the CNIL’s decision and will comply with it. Also on Thursday, French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced that as of Saturday, January 16, a curfew will be imposed on the country’s mainland territory starting at 6 p.m. In France, since mid-December, it has been forbidden to leave the house without a valid reason, but from 8 pm.
France is one of the European countries hardest hit by the pandemic, with nearly 2.9 million cases and 69.1 thousand deaths (data from Johns Hopkins University). Over the past year, authorities have implemented a variety of measures to combat the epidemic, from nationwide to local lockdowns, fines and special permits to leave home. Ski resorts are closed. A nationwide curfew is currently in effect, but yesterday scientific advisers to the French government said that no restrictions had yet produced the desired results and that quarantine measures needed to be tightened.
British tennis player Andy Murray’s participation in the Australian Grand Slam tournament is in doubt after his coronavirus test came back positive just hours before his flight to Melbourne. Murray is feeling well, but has been forced to isolate himself at home in Scotland.
Andy Murray says he feels good. He hopes to make it to the start of the tournament, which starts three weeks later than usual this year – on February 8 – due to the pandemic. If Murray is allowed to compete, he will arrive in Australia just in time for the start and will lack the necessary acclimatization period, but he is not bothered by that. Murray believes that after a long series of injuries and a lengthy recovery, he has reached optimal physical condition and is ready to play in a Grand Slam singles tournament for the first time in two years. Andy Murray has never won the Australian Open, but he has reached the final five times. The 33-year-old Briton has three Grand Slam victories in his collection: two at Wimbledon and one at the US Open.