New Coronavirus News from 30 Mar 2021a

Threat of fourth wave looms closer as Spain’s coronavirus incidence rate continues to rise [EL PAÍS in English, 30 Mar 2021]

Threat of fourth wave looms closer as Spain’s coronavirus incidence rate continues to rise
The 14-day cumulative number of cases per 100,000 inhabitants now stands at 149, and exceeds the threshold for extreme risk in Madrid and Navarre

What began as a slow and sustained rise in the incidence rate of coronavirus cases in Spain is looking increasingly more like an upward spike. Indeed, the figures are beginning to paint with growing clarity the beginning of a fourth wave. According to the latest Health Ministry report on the health crisis, released Monday evening, the 14-day cumulative number of cases per 100,000 inhabitants now stands at 149. In the regions of Madrid and Navarre, this data point has risen to 255 and 266, respectively, passing the 250-threshold considered by the Health Ministry to indicate a situation of extreme risk.

Fernando Simón, the director of the Health Ministry’s Coordination Center for Health Alerts (CCAES), said this upward trend could be contained as a “small wave.” Speaking at a press conference on Monday to present the latest report, he explained: “We are in a situation of inflection. We could maintain the trend or reverse it. It’s in everyone’s hands. If we manage to maintain this trough a few weeks more, with the level of vaccinations being carried out these weeks, we could have an epidemiological wave, if indeed we have one, that is much smaller than the previous ones. And each week that passes, we vaccinate more people; it’s time we gain.”

If all of us are capable of maintaining discipline, the control measures, perhaps it doesn’t make sense to speak of a fourth wave

FERNANDO SIMÓN, DIRECTOR OF THE HEALTH MINISTRY’S COORDINATION CENTER FOR HEALTH ALERTS

As the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines to the collectives most vulnerable to the disease continues, the lethality rate is likely to fall, even if the number of cases rises. Simón, however, insisted that it is too soon to speak of a fourth wave, given that the upward trend of the incidence rate has not yet been consolidated and that the epidemiological situation varies greatly from region to region.

Although in 12 of Spain’s 19 territories (17 regions and the two North African exclave cities of Melilla and Ceuta), the incidence rate is on the rise, it is doing so from very different starting points. While the 14-day cumulative number of cases per 100,000 inhabitants in Madrid and Navarre is more than 250, it is less than 100 in the Balearic Islands and Extremadura, even if it is rising slightly. In the Valencia region and Murcia, the data point is also below 100 and it is on a downward trend.

For the first time, the general rise in the number of coronavirus cases, which began two weeks ago, is beginning to be reflected in hospital occupancy rates, which rose slightly on Monday, with respect to Friday. Covid-19 patients now occupy 6.5% of ward hospital beds and 18.7% of intensive care units (ICUs).

According to Simón, the next few days will be key to confirming whether or not the long weekend for father’s day or San José, which was celebrated on March 19 in several regions, led to a significant rise in the incidence rate, as has happened during other public holidays. “If all of us are capable of maintaining discipline, the control measures, perhaps it doesn’t make sense to speak of a fourth wave,” said Simón.

When asked about the images of tourists in Madrid breaking the coronavirus health measures, Simón said what was important was not the fact that foreign visitors are allowed to visit Spain, but rather that they follow the rules once they are in the country. “What I have seen in the last few days is worrying. But we can’t say we have to be responsible and then not implement the measures that are proposed,” said Simón.

What RNA Is In There? [GenomeWeb, 30 Mar 2021]

Stanford University researchers analyzed the last drops of SAR-CoV-2 vaccines to determine the mRNA sequences they use, Vice's Motherboard reports. It adds that the researchers then posted their findings on GitHub.

Stanford's Andrew Fire and Massa Shoura tell Motherboard that their work didn't use any vaccine that could have been administered — just the 'dregs' at the bottom of the vial — and that they were analyzed under US Food and Drug Administration authorization for research use.

Fire, Shoura, and their colleagues then sequenced the samples to piece together what is contained in the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. As Motherboard notes, the Pfizer-BioNTech sequence had already been determined.

The University of New South Wales's Stuart Turville tells the Guardian Australia that it could be important to be able to distinguish RNA generated by the virus and that from the vaccine.

"As the vaccine has been rolling out, these sequences have begun to show up in many different investigational and diagnostic studies," Fire and Shoura tell Motherboard. "Knowing these sequences and having the ability to differentiate them from other RNAs in analyzing future biomedical data sets is of great utility."

Oncology Peer Review On-The-Go: COVID-19, Cancer, and the Potential of mRNA Vaccines [Cancer Network, 30 Mar 2021]

By Matthew Fowler

Mehmet Sitki Copur, MD, discussed his article in the Journal ONCOLOGY focusing on COVID-19, messenger RNA vaccines, and the excitement surrounding its integration into the future of cancer treatment.

This episode of the “Oncology Peer Review On-The-Go” podcast centers around an article publishing in the April issue of the Journal ONCOLOGY, titled “Messenger RNA Vaccines-Beckoning of a New Era in Cancer Immunotherapy.” The article touches on the recent development of mRNA vaccines approved to combat COVID-19 and how this offers optimism for the future of mRNA to treat patients with cancer.

The author, Mehmet Sitki Copur, MD, of the University of Nebraska Medical Center, broke down the basics of mRNA, its history, challenges, and potential opportunities around this relatively new class of vaccine.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the “Oncology Peer Review On-The-Go” podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere podcasts are available.

WHO: Wuhan scientists initially worried coronavirus leaked from a lab [Business Insider, 30 Mar 2021]

The WHO's leader said its investigation into whether the coronavirus leaked from a Wuhan lab was not 'extensive enough'

? After an investigation, the WHO said it's "extremely unlikely" the coronavirus leaked from a lab.
? But the WHO's director-general said its investigation of that theory wasn't "extensive enough."
? There's no evidence the virus had been in any labs, but the WHO couldn't conduct a full audit.

After a month-long investigation in Wuhan, the World Health Organization has offered the most comprehensive analysis to date of where the coronavirus might have come from and how it could have gotten into the human population.

The WHO report, released Tuesday, lists the coronavirus' possible origin scenarios in order of their likelihood. At the top is the possibility that the coronavirus jumped from bats to people via an intermediary animal host, perhaps at a wildlife farm in China. Last on the ranking is the controversial theory that the virus leaked from a Chinese lab.

But in a press conference Tuesday, the WHO's director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he does "not believe that this assessment was extensive enough."

"Although the team has concluded that a laboratory leak is the least likely hypothesis, this requires further investigation, potentially with additional missions involving specialist experts, which I am ready to deploy," he said. Tedros added that members of the international WHO team who traveled to China "expressed the difficulties they encountered in accessing raw data."

Following the report's release, the US and a dozen other countries have called for an independent investigation into the coronavirus' origins ? one that would be "free from interference and undue influence," The Wall Street Journal reported.

A lab leak is 'extremely unlikely,' but the WHO didn't audit Wuhan labs

Tedros said the lab-leak hypothesis should "remain on the table," since the WHO experts spent only hours at each high-level biosafety lab in Wuhan.

Peter Ben Embarek, a WHO scientist specializing in animal disease, said during the press conference that the group didn't do "a full investigation or audit" of any particular lab. Overall, he added, the possibility of a lab leak "did not receive the same depth of attention and work" as other hypotheses about the virus' origin.

Still, the report offers compelling reasons why it's extremely unlikely the virus escaped from a lab.

The team found no evidence that samples of the new coronavirus existed at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where scientists were studying various coronaviruses prior to the pandemic, before the first COVID-19 cases were reported in December 2019.

The WHO also didn't find any records indicating that viruses closely related to the new coronavirus were kept in any Chinese lab before that month. There were also no viruses that, when combined, could have produced the new coronavirus.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology, pictured on April 17, 2020. Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty
Additionally, none of the staff in any Wuhan labs studying coronaviruses reported cases of respiratory illnesses "during the weeks/months prior to December 2019," the report said.

Blood samples from staff during that time (which are taken routinely from biosafety lab workers to monitor their health) also all tested negative for coronavirus antibodies. This suggests no lab workers got infected prior to the pandemic.

'This is something coming out of our labs'

Members of the World Health Organization's team investigating the origins of the coronavirus pandemic attend a press conference in Wuhan, China, on February 9, 2021. Kyodo News/Getty
The WHO team's report did reveal, however, that the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) moved to a new location in early December 2019. The new facility happened to be about 8 miles from the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, to which China's first cluster of cases was linked.

That proximity, coupled with the fact that there were multiple labs in Wuhan studying coronaviruses at the time the pandemic began, has led to speculation about a possible link between a lab and the market outbreak.

"Even the staff in these labs told us that was their first reaction when they heard about this new emerging disease, this coronavirus: 'This is something coming out of our labs,'" Embarek said.

"They all went back to their to their records and work to try to find out if there was a link but nobody could find any trace of something similar to this virus in in their records or their their samples," he added.

But Embarek's team didn't have the resources to fully verify that claim.

"A team of scientists is not qualified to conduct a detailed audit of WIV's records, or get access to institutional files, lab notebooks, databases, or freezer inventories," virologist Angela Rasmussen, a virologist and member of the WHO team, told Science.

Dominic Dwyer, a WHO microbiologist who's worked in high-level biosafety labs before, said on Tuesday that the team was "satisfied there was no obvious evidence of a problem," in any of the labs they visited. He noted as well that a complete forensic examination of a lab is a complex process, and that was "not what we were there to do."

The WHO team did, however, speak with managers and staff at the labs about their safety protocol, and confirmed the facilities were well-managed.

A wealth of evidence points to the conclusion that bats first passed the coronavirus to an animal, the WHO experts said. Then that animal population passed it along to humans. Indeed, a May study revealed that the new coronavirus shared 97.1% of its genetic code with a coronavirus called RmYN02, which was found in bats in China's Yunnan province between May and October 2019.

Bats are common virus hosts ? cross-species hops from bat populations also led to the outbreaks of Ebola, SARS, and the Nipah virus.

WHO report into COVID pandemic origins zeroes in on animal markets [Nature.com, 30 Mar 2021]

By Amy Maxmen

Scientists say the conclusions make sense but note that supporters of the lab-leak theory are unlikely to be satisfied.

Markets that sold animals ? some dead, some alive ? in December 2019 have emerged as a probable source of the coronavirus pandemic in a major investigation organized by the World Health Organization (WHO).

That investigation winnowed out alternative hypotheses on when and where the pandemic arose, concluding that the virus probably didn’t spread widely before December or escape from a laboratory. The investigation report, released today, also takes a deep look at the likely role of markets ? including the Huanan market in Wuhan, to which many of the first known COVID-19 infections are linked.

Where did COVID come from? Five mysteries that remain

“We could show the virus was circulating in the market as early as December 2019,” says the WHO’s Peter Ben Embarek, who co-led the investigation. He adds that this investigation is far from the last. “A lot of good leads were suggested in this report, and we anticipate that many, if not all of them, will be followed through because we owe it to the world to understand what happened, why and how to prevent it from happening again”.

Eddie Holmes, a virologist at the University of Sydney in Australia, says that the report does a good job of laying out what’s known about the early days of the pandemic ? and notes that it suggests next steps for study. “There was clearly a lot of transmission at the market,” he says. “To me, looking at live-animal markets and animal farming should be the focus going forward.”

Nevertheless, exactly what happened at the Huanan market remains unknown. Genomic analyses and inferences based on the origins of other diseases suggest that an intermediate animal ? possibly one sold at markets ? passed SARS-CoV-2 to humans after becoming infected with a predecessor coronavirus in bats.

After the report’s publication, the WHO director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who was not directly involved with the investigation, posted a statement saying that he looks forward to future studies of the coronavirus’s animal origins ? but that he wasn’t content with the examination of a potential laboratory leak. “I do not believe that this assessment was extensive enough,” he wrote. “This requires further investigation, potentially with additional missions involving specialist experts, which I am ready to deploy.”

Huanan-market outbreak

In late January and early February, 34 scientists from nations including China, Japan, the United States and the United Kingdom gathered in Wuhan and assessed data. Today, the team published its findings in a 300-page report.

Much of it is devoted to COVID-19 cases occurring in December 2019 and January 2020. Two-thirds of the 170-odd people who had symptoms in December reported having been exposed to live or dead animals shortly beforehand, and 10% had travelled outside Wuhan.

‘Major stones unturned’: COVID origin search must continue after WHO report, say scientists

Chinese researchers sequenced the genomes of SARS-CoV-2 from some of the people in this group, finding that eight of the earliest sequences were identical, and that infected people were linked to the Huanan market. This suggests an outbreak there, according to the report.
However, researchers also found that these genomes varied slightly from those in a few other early cases. Some linked to the market; others did not. This means that the coronavirus might have been spreading under the radar in communities, evolving along the way, and coincidentally occurring in people linked to the market, says the report.

Another possibility is that an outbreak occurred at a farm that provided animals to the market, suggests Holmes. Several infected animals ? with slightly different variations of SARS-CoV-2 ? might have then been sold at markets in Wuhan, sparking multiple infections in humans.

Meet the scientists investigating the origins of the COVID pandemic

Plenty of animals were sold at the Huanan market. December 2019 records list poultry, badgers, rabbits, giant salamanders, two kinds of crocodiles and more. Chinese officials said that the market didn’t sell live mammals or illegal wildlife, the report adds, but also references unverified media reports suggesting that it did, along with photos that Holmes published after a trip there in 2014, of animals such as live raccoon dogs.

Chinese researchers collected nearly 1,000 samples from the Huanan market in early 2020, swabbing doors, rubbish bins, toilets, stalls that sold vegetables and animals, stray cats and mice. The majority that tested positive were from stalls that sold seafood, livestock and poultry. The researchers also took samples from 188 animals from 18 species at the market, all of which tested negative.

But these animals don’t represent everything sold in the market, notes WHO team member Peter Daszak, president of the non-profit research organization Ecohealth Alliance in New York City. “A thousand samples is a great start, but there’s more to do,” he says. He points out that researchers traced farmed animals at the market back to three provinces in China where pangolins and bats carrying coronaviruses similar to SARS-CoV-2 had been found. Although the pangolin and bat viruses proved too distant to be the direct progenitors of SARS-CoV-2, Daszak says that the animals might provide a clue that outbreaks among animals started in those places.

Market or lab?

The WHO report also concludes that it's highly unlikely that the coronavirus escaped from a lab at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Most scientists say that evidence overwhelmingly favours SARS-CoV-2 having spilled over from animals into humans, but a few have backed the idea that the virus was intentionally or accidentally leaked from a lab.

Can COVID spread from frozen wildlife? Scientists probe pandemic origins

When the report authors visited the institute, its scientists told them that no one in the lab had antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, ruling out the notion that someone there had been infected in an experiment, and had spread it to others.

The Wuhan researchers also said that they hadn’t kept any live virus strains similar to SARS-CoV-2. And in their discussions with the investigative team, they pointed out a Nature Medicine paper1 showing that similar viruses exist in animals in China, rather than in their lab. They further explained that everyone in the lab has safety training and psychological evaluations, and that their physical and mental health are continuously monitored.

“We were allowed to ask whatever questions we wanted, and we got answers,” says Daszak, who collaborates with researchers at the Wuhan institute. “The only evidence that people have for a lab leak is that there is a lab in Wuhan,” he adds.

Scientists call for pandemic investigations to focus on wildlife trade

Nevertheless, the findings are likely to be contested by some. A small group of scientists have sent letters to the media saying that they wouldn’t trust the outcome of the investigation because it was closely overseen by China’s government.

But others say that the WHO team’s conclusions seem solid. “I’m sure people will say that the Chinese researchers are lying, but it strikes me as honest,” argues Holmes. Matthew Kavanagh, a global-health researcher at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, says that he’s heard no evidence pointing to a lab escape. “But the sceptics are going to want a deeper investigation than the Chinese government allowed,” he says.

He adds that it’s challenging for the WHO to carry out such studies. “The WHO is in a completely impossible position because they are being criticized for not holding China accountable, but they are given almost no tools to compel any country to cooperate,” he says. China holds information closely, and “in that context, the WHO’s team has gotten a good look at a lot of data ? but it can only get so far”.

Narrowing down the timing

Some studies have suggested that COVID-19 was spreading among people before December 2019. To explore that possibility, the report authors looked at analyses of SARS-CoV-2 sequences collected from people in January 2020, and estimated that they evolved from a common ancestor between mid-November and early December of 2019. That estimate roughly corroborates the findings of a report published in Science this month2.

Where did COVID come from? WHO investigation begins but faces challenges

The researchers also looked at death certificates in China, and found a steep increase in the number of weekly deaths in the week beginning 15 January 2020. They found that the death rate peaked first in Wuhan, and then, two weeks later, in the wider province of Hubei, suggesting that the outbreak began in Wuhan. The report also publishes data on people seeking care for respiratory infections, which similarly suggests that COVID-19 didn’t begin taking off until January.

As for reports of SARS-CoV-2 circulating in Italy and Brazil in October and November 2019, the report calls these studies inconclusive because they were based on partial sequences of SARS-CoV-2, and therefore could be a case of mistaken viral identity.But inconclusive doesn’t mean impossible. And Tedros indicates that there will be more work to come. “This report is a very important beginning, but it is not the end.”

References
1. Andersen, K. G. et al. Nat. Med. 26, 450?452 (2020).

2. Pekar, J. et al. Science https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abf8003 (2021).

WHO Wuhan report leaves question of coronavirus origins unresolved [The Washington Post, 30 Mar 2021]

By Emily Rauhala

A joint World Health Organization-China report on the origins of the coronavirus says it most probably jumped from animals to humans via an intermediate animal host, downplays the possibility it leaked from a lab and suggests next steps in a complex search mired in controversy, according to a copy obtained by The Washington Post.

The report, set to be released Tuesday, offers the most detailed look yet at what happened in Wuhan, China, in late 2019 and early 2020. However, the findings are far from conclusive and will be overshadowed by questions about China’s lack of transparency ? and the WHO’s apparent inability to press for more.

The team recommends further study of the possible path of transmission between animals and humans and on transmission through frozen food ? a once-fringe theory favored by the Chinese government. It does not recommend additional research on the lab leak hypothesis.

But WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who was not part of the Wuhan mission, offered somewhat contradictory messaging at a news conference on Monday, saying “all hypotheses are open” and warrant future study.

Given China’s coverup of the outbreak in Wuhan, the WHO’s early praise for the country’s response and the fact that it took a full year to get a joint Chinese-international team on the ground for a brief visit, the critical but challenging search for clues faced skepticism from the start.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN last week he had concerns about “the methodology and the process,” including “the fact that the government in Beijing apparently helped to write it.”

“I don’t think the global community can have confidence in this report, because of China’s lack of transparency on necessary data sources, as well as the close relationship the team had to have with China,” said Larry Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University.
“This was an expert panel who worked diligently but were blocked from finding all that it could,” he continued. “As a result, we may never know the origins of the pandemic.”

Questions about Chinese interference will be hard to shake. The terms of reference set out by WHO member states called for a collaboration between Chinese and foreign scientists, not an independent investigation or audit. Much of the data was collected by Chinese scientists ahead of the visit and then analyzed by the joint team.

Among the report’s findings is that the market linked to early cases was not necessarily the source of the virus, as some once believed, but may have been the site of an early outbreak or an accelerator, as a virus that was circulating in December 2019 spread between close-packed stalls.

It notes the earliest reported case, from Dec. 8, did not have any link to the market, but it suggests that mild and asymptomatic cases may have gone undetected. The report, therefore, does not draw a firm conclusion and calls for additional research on the role of that and other markets.

According to the report, 233 Chinese health institutions reviewed 76,253 records of cases of respiratory conditions from October and November 2019, found 92 cases compatible with SARS-Co-V2 but later ruled out each case, concluding significant transmission before December was unlikely.

But the report questions whether the clinical criteria used to select those cases was sufficiently broad and notes that the results were based on serological testing conducted about a year later. It says the possibility of transmission before December 2019 cannot be excluded and recommends a review of methods and additional studies on Chinese blood samples.

The report reiterates the team’s belief that the virus most probably jumped from an animal, potentially a bat or pangolin, to an unknown intermediate animal host, then to humans, but the path of transmission remains a mystery. It recommends additional studies on livestock and farmed wildlife that may be susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, such as cats and mink.

The mission concludes it is extremely unlikely the virus accidentally leaked from a lab in Wuhan ? a theory many scientists downplay for lack of evidence but that others are not ready to dismiss after a single visit.

The visit to the Wuhan Institute of Virology lasted a few hours, according to scientists on the trip. They got a tour of the facility, heard about the lab’s rigorous safety protocols and were told the lab was not working with viruses close to SARS-CoV-2.

One member of the team said in a post-trip television interview that researchers at the lab were sick in the fall of 2019 ? a potentially interesting finding that had been raised by the Trump administration ? but then dismissed its relevance and offered little else.

The final report states there was no direct infection of workers but does not go into detail or recommend further research on the topic.

It also notes that three laboratories in Wuhan were working with either coronavirus diagnostics or on isolation and vaccine development. All were “high quality” and “well managed,” it said, but it did not specify if the joint mission saw additional evidence, such as audits, to substantiate the claims.

The report also notes that a Wuhan Center for Disease Control lab moved Dec. 2, 2019 ? a new detail ? but that it “reported no disruptions or incidents caused by the move.”

The search for the origin of any virus is challenging, but the circumstances surrounding the first known cases of this one made launching a credible investigation particularly tough.

When a novel coronavirus hit Wuhan in late 2019, Chinese officials downplayed the risk, undercounted cases and silenced would-be whistleblowers. Then through the early weeks of the crisis, the WHO amplified some of the official Chinese line, giving a false sense of reassurance and eroding public trust.

Foreign scientists on the trip generally agree the timing and level of access was suboptimal but stressed that they were able to obtain information the world did not have before.

Even though the Huanan market had been shut for a year and its contents removed, for instance, seeing the proximity of the stalls and the layout helped, said WHO team member Hung Nguyen-Viet, a Vietnamese expert on livestock and human health.

In interviews, Hung and another expert on the trip, Keith Hamilton of the World Organization for Animal Health, said research on the market pointed to the need for additional investigation in southern China. It is unclear if China will allow foreign scientists to return.

Further questions about Chinese government influence will be raised by the report’s willingness to engage with the theory that the virus spread via frozen food ? an idea touted by Chinese officials eager to suggest the pandemic originated outside the country. The report calls for additional research on whether the cold chain may play a role in transmission but casts doubt on the idea that early cases were imported to Wuhan. “This would be extraordinary in 2019 where the virus was not circulating widely,” it reads.

Still, the report ranks introduction through the cold chain as a “possible pathway,” of greater probability than a lab incident, which it describes as “an extremely unlikely pathway.”

Dominic Dwyer, an Australian microbiologist and infectious-disease expert on the mission, stressed that the team did not have the mandate, personnel or time to conduct a formal audit on labs.

“You could do, if so desired, a more detailed forensic examination,” he said. “But that is another whole negotiation and discussion.”

“What stands out starkly is that this is the kind of situation where member states are expecting results from WHO that they have not empowered it to produce,” said Mara Pillinger, a senior associate in global health policy and governance at Georgetown’s O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law. “They needed permission to go in, to conduct research and on the report.”

In general, the foreign scientists on the trip took pains to praise their Chinese counterparts, noting their technical expertise and professionalism. They also acknowledged the limits of working with data collected before they arrived that may or may not be complete.

“At the end of the day,” Hung said, “they show us what they show.”

Measures in place to prevent Easter Covid-19 spike [Chronicle, 30 Mar 2021]

by Mashudu Netsianda

GOVERNMENT has put in place the necessary precautionary measures to curb the recurrence of a spike in Covid-19 during the Easter holiday with security agencies out in full force to ensure that citizens comply with the lockdown regulations.

During the festive season the country recorded a sharp increase in Covid-19 cases with 1 342 cases and 29 deaths being reported in a week, marking the highest number of infections and deaths to be ever recorded since March last year.

After a week into the new year, the country recorded 34 deaths in one single day on January 5.

The number of deaths reached 500 on January 10 and two weeks later they had doubled to 1 005.

Speaking during a question-and-answer session in the Senate last Thursday, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Senator Monica Mutsvangwa said Government has put mechanisms in place to ensure that people adhere to the preventative measures in line with the World Health Organisation (WHO) protocols.

“In terms of protocols put together for the prevention and precautionary measures to avoid virus, Government would not leave any stone unturned, in terms of making sure that our people adhere to those measures. We know as a nation that we had a tragedy in January and certainly, the Government is doing all it can to make sure that we avoid a recurrence of December upsurge, if ever there is another third wave,” she said.

“A lot of efforts have been put in terms of making sure that people adhere to the precautionary and preventative measures which have been put in place by Government and also by the World Health Organisation (WHO).”

Minister Mutsvangwa said security agencies are on high alert to make sure that there will not be any gatherings exceeding the 50 people in line with the review of lockdown regulations recently announced by President Mnangagwa.

“If it is a church gathering, they should not be more than 50. There will be security agencies to make sure that people actually comply. The issue of compliance has been a serious problem and as the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, we have also upped our game,” she said.

The Minister said outdoor there would be Government vehicles moving around in all the high-density areas and provinces to make sure that people comply with the protocols of Covid-19.
“The borders, as you are aware are still not open to everybody, except for Zimbabwe returnees because we cannot really say to a Zimbabwean that you cannot come back to your country.
Certainly, all the security agents will be out on full force to make sure that people are adhering to the precautionary and preventative measures which have been put in place by Government and World Health Organisation,” she said.

“In churches we are allowing gatherings of up to 50; it calls for social distancing, washing hands and sanitisation even at funerals. So, we are saying to the people of Zimbabwe let us continue to adhere to these Covid-19 protocols, this will save our lives and our loved ones.”
Minister Mutsvangwa said the country will be able to contain the pandemic following the roll out of vaccination programme.

“So, a lot of work through the inter-ministerial task force on Covid-19 is being done and to make sure that our security forces the police and everyone else will be actually out there to make sure that people comply,” she said.

On the Shoulders of Giants ? From Jenner's Cowpox to mRNA Covid Vaccines [nejm.org, 30 Mar 2021]

Authored by Angela Desmond and Paul A. Offit

In September 2008, Katalin Kariko, Drew Weissman, and their colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania modified messenger RNA (mRNA) using nucleoside analogues. These modifications stabilized the molecule and eliminated its capacity for inducing innate immunity, thereby making mRNA a promising tool for both gene replacement and vaccination.1 In December 2020, on the basis of safety and efficacy data generated in two large, placebo-controlled studies, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued emergency use authorizations for two mRNA vaccines for the prevention of Covid-19. Clearance of this hurdle by the first mRNA vaccines represents the most recent in a series of breakthroughs in the realm of viral vaccines, each building on the last and each with a compelling record of disease prevention.

The first major vaccine-related advance occurred in 1796, when Edward Jenner, a physician working in southern England, found that an animal virus (cowpox) could protect against disease caused by a human virus (smallpox).2 One hundred years would pass before viruses would be identified as causative agents of disease; nevertheless, the notion that infectious diseases could be prevented by vaccination was born. Jenner’s work ultimately led to the eradication of a disease that is estimated to have killed more than 300 million people in the 20th century. The strategy of using animal viruses to prevent human diseases continues today with a rotavirus vaccine that is derived in part from a bovine strain of the virus.

The second breakthrough occurred nearly a century after the first. In 1885, Louis Pasteur found that the spinal cords of rabbits that had been experimentally inoculated with rabies virus were no longer infectious after 15 days of desiccation.3 On July 6, 1885, Joseph Meister, a 9-year-old boy who had been attacked by a rabid dog 2 days earlier, visited Pasteur’s laboratory. Using a series of inoculations with suspensions of desiccated rabbit spinal cords, Pasteur saved Meister’s life. Rabies, a disease with a mortality of virtually 100%, was now preventable after exposure. Pasteur had opened the door for vaccines made with physically or chemically inactivated viruses. During the 20th century, notable successes that relied on the killed-virus strategy included an influenza vaccine developed by Thomas Francis in the early 1940s, a polio vaccine developed by Jonas Salk in the mid-1950s (Salk had trained in Francis’s laboratory at the University of Michigan), and a hepatitis A vaccine developed by Philip Provost and Maurice Hilleman in 1991.

The third major advance in vaccinology occurred in 1937, when Max Theiler attenuated yellow fever virus by means of serial passage in mouse and chicken embryos.4 By forcing the virus to grow in nonhuman cells, Theiler introduced a series of blind genetic alterations in the virus that rendered it less capable of causing disease but still capable of inducing protective immunity.
For this work, Theiler was awarded the 1951 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Derivatives of Theiler’s yellow fever vaccine are still used today. The latter half of the 20th century witnessed an explosion of live attenuated viral vaccines developed using his technique. In the early 1960s, Albert Sabin, who had trained in Theiler’s laboratory at the Rockefeller Foundation in New York City, made a polio vaccine by weakening polio viruses using serial passage in monkey kidney and testicular cells. Other live attenuated vaccines followed, including vaccines to prevent measles (1963), mumps (1967), rubella (1969), varicella (1995), and rotavirus (2008).

The fourth breakthrough occurred in 1980, when Stanford biochemists Richard Mulligan and Paul Berg published findings from their experiments that involved transfecting monkey kidney cells with an Escherichia coli gene and thereby causing mammalian cells to make a bacterial protein.5 Recombinant DNA technology was born. Made using yeast or baculovirus-expression systems, vaccines containing purified surface proteins from hepatitis B virus (1986), human papillomavirus (2006), and influenza virus (2013) have since become available.

Although there is still much work to be done to address vaccine hesitancy, build trust, and ensure equitable benefits from vaccination, the list of vaccine successes in the United States is long. After the introduction of Salk’s inactivated polio vaccine, for example, the incidence of polio dropped from 29,000 cases in 1955 to fewer than 900 in 1962. With the introduction of Sabin’s live attenuated vaccine in the early 1960s, polio was eliminated from the United States. Since its licensure in 2006, the bovine?human reassortant rotavirus vaccine has virtually eliminated rotavirus, preventing up to 75,000 hospitalizations and 60 deaths per year. During the 2019?2020 influenza season, the influenza vaccine prevented an estimated 7.52 million infections, 3.69 million medical visits, 105,000 hospitalizations, and 6300 deaths in the United States.

Other live attenuated viral vaccines have been equally important. The measles vaccine has nearly eliminated a virus that previously caused 2 million to 3 million infections, 50,000 hospitalizations, and 500 deaths every year in the United States; the mumps vaccine has substantially reduced the incidence of a condition that was once among the most common causes of acquired deafness; the rubella vaccine has prevented rubella outbreaks that caused as many as 20,000 cases of congenital rubella syndrome and 5000 rubella-related spontaneous abortions per year; and the varicella vaccine has markedly reduced varicella-associated morbidity and mortality from annual rates of more than 9000 hospitalizations and 100 deaths. In addition, since the hepatitis B virus vaccine started being routinely recommended for newborns in the early 1990s, rates of hepatitis B virus infection among children younger than 10 years have fallen from about 18,000 per year to nearly zero.

The full benefits of existing vaccines have yet to be realized throughout the world, but important strides have been made. In 1988, when the World Health Organization (WHO) resolved to eradicate polio, there were 350,000 new cases of the disease worldwide. By 2020, deployment of Sabin’s vaccine had led to the eradication of wild-type poliovirus from five of the six WHO regions. Two of the three types of poliovirus have now been eliminated globally, and the WHO campaign has prevented permanent paralysis in an estimated 18 million people. What’s more, between 2000 and 2018, roughly 23 million measles deaths were prevented by vaccination. The rubella vaccine, now used in 173 of 194 WHO member states, has reduced the number of global rubella cases from 671,000 in 2000 to 49,000 in 2019. Live attenuated rotavirus vaccines are countering a virus that once killed more than 500,000 infants and young children each year.

Now, the world faces its most devastating pandemic since 1918, when influenza virus killed about 50 million people. As of January 2021, the SARS-CoV-2 virus had killed more than 500,000 people in the United States and more than 2.5 million people worldwide. Vaccines are again being tapped as an important component of the public health response. With more than 180 research institutes and 100 companies worldwide involved in vaccine-development efforts, every strategy that has ever been used to make vaccines is being advanced against SARS-CoV-2. New technologies are also being used. With the recent authorization of mRNA vaccines, we have entered the fifth era of vaccinology. This class of vaccines doesn’t contain viral proteins; rather, these vaccines use mRNA, DNA, or viral vectors that provide instructions to cells on how to make such proteins. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic will be an important test of whether these new platforms can fulfill their promise of creating safe, effective, and scalable vaccines more quickly than traditional methods. If they pass this test, the next task will be to accomplish equitable, efficient vaccine distribution ? which would represent an even greater achievement.

Real world study shows mRNA vaccines protect against symptomatic and asymptomatic infection: CDC [ABC News 30 Mar 2021]

ByIvan Pereira

The study looked at vaccinated front-line workers in real world conditions.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new data Monday bolstering previous studies that showed mRNA vaccines are effective at preventing asymptomatic COVID-19 cases.

The agency studied 3,950 people who received the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, most of whom were front-line workers and health care personnel. The vaccines were shown to be 90% effective in reducing the risk of any coronavirus infection.

The study is one of the first looks at the vaccine in real-world settings since the doses were made available to the public in December.

Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children's Hospital and an ABC News contributor, said the results are very promising and would be used to affect policies across the country.

"Without data, especially in the real world, there has been hesitation to put out guidance of how we act post-vaccine," he said. "This is an important study that will help us change behaviors."

The study followed the participants, who were in six states, over a 13-week period from Dec. 14, 2020, to March 13, 2021. Following a single dose of the mRNA vaccine, the participants’ risk of infection with the coronavirus was reduced by 80% two or more weeks after vaccination, according to the study.

Their risk was reduced by 90% two weeks after the participants received their second shot, the study said.

"This is important because preventing both asymptomatic and pre-symptomatic infections among health care workers and other essential workers through vaccination can help prevent the spread of SARS-CoV-2 to those they care for or serve," the CDC said in a news release.
The study reaffirms the results of clinical trials for both vaccines that showed a drop in infection risk, according to researchers.

Brownstein said the findings will help with the messaging that the vaccines are safe and critical for protecting Americans from the virus.

"If people weren’t convinced, these vaccines were incredible scientific achievements, this is another point of proof," he said.

More than 142 million doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines have been administered in the U.S. as of March 29, according to the CDC. More than 49 million Americans have had two doses of the mRNA vaccines, the CDC data showed.

The study did not examine the effectiveness of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which does not use mRNA technology. Brownstein said that shouldn't discourage eligible candidates from signing up for the one dose option.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, he noted, has shown to prevent the harshest symptoms of the virus and death and there are currently real-world studies to determine its effectiveness when it comes to asymptomatic infection.

As of March 29, more than 3.1 million Americans have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the CDC said.

"By everyone getting the vaccine, it brings us closer to bringing this pandemic to an end," Brownstein said.

Coronavirus latest: Pfizer and Moderna shots very effective, CDC says [Nikkei Asia, 30 Mar 2021]

Philippines receives 1m Sinovac doses; J&J agrees to give African Union up to 400m shots

Nikkei Asia is tracking the spread of the coronavirus that was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

Cumulative global cases have reached 127,442,926, according to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. The worldwide death toll has hit 2,787,915.

For more information about the spread of COVID-19 and the progress of vaccination around the world, please see our interactive charts and maps.

-- Global coronavirus tracker charts

-- Status of vaccinations around the world

-- World map of spreading mutated strains

-- Distribution, duration, safety: challenges emerge in vaccine race

Tuesday, March 30 (Tokyo time)

3:00 a.m. U.S. President Joe Biden calls on governors and mayors to maintain or reinstate mask-wearing orders, saying the coronavirus is again spreading fast because of "reckless behavior."

People "are letting up on precautions, which is a very bad thing," he says. "We're giving up hard-fought, hard-won gains," Biden says.

Biden says he has directed his coronavirus team to ensure that there is a vaccination site within five miles of 90% of Americans within three weeks.

1:00 a.m. The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines against COVID-19 are highly effective at preventing symptomatic and asymptomatic infections under real-world conditions, according to a federal study.

In a study of about 4,000 essential workers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the vaccines reduced the risk of infection by 80% after one shot. Protection increased to 90% following the second dose. The findings are consistent with clinical trial results.

The Philippines has received 1 million doses of vaccines purchased from Sinovac Biotech, the first batch to be delivered under a procurement deal covering 25 million shots.
Monday, March 29

7:00 p.m. The Philippines receives 1 million doses of vaccines purchased from Sinovac Biotech, the first batch to be delivered under a procurement deal covering 25 million shots. The Chinese government earlier donated 1 million shots of Sinovac jabs, bringing the Philippines' supply to around 2.5 million doses, including 525,600 AstraZeneca jabs courtesy of the COVAX facility.

6:50 p.m. Johnson & Johnson has agreed to supply up to 400 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to the African Union from the third quarter of 2021, the drugmaker says. J&J unit Janssen Pharmaceutica has entered into a deal with the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust to deliver 220 million doses of its single-dose shot. AVAT could order an additional 180 million doses through 2022. The deal comes after months of negotiations with the AU, which announced a provisional agreement in January to buy 270 million doses of vaccines from three drugmakers: J&J, AstraZeneca and Pfizer.

Johnson & Johnson has agreed to supply up to 400 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to the African Union from the third quarter of 2021.

5:34 p.m. Social distancing restrictions in Hong Kong will be relaxed as daily new infections dropped to single digit in recent days. An increased number of people will be allowed in cinemas and theme parks. Swimming pools, public beaches, and churches can also reopen.

5:17 p.m. The Philippines reports 10,016 new infections, a record high, as Metro Manila and four neighboring provinces enter a weeklong lockdown to fight the surge of cases which has overwhelmed hospitals. The latest count brings the total number of cases to 731,894, of which 115,495 are classified as "active." The death toll stands at 13,186, including 16 new fatalities.

4:35 p.m. All Nippon Airways has carried out a trial of a digital "health passport," the first test in Japan of a certification that some hope will breathe new life into international travel and airlines battered by the pandemic. ANA tested the CommonPass digital health app on two passengers for a flight to New York that departed from Tokyo's Haneda Airport. The app enables users to upload their negative test results, and proof of vaccination status, before boarding international flights.

3:40 p.m. Osaka Gov. Hirofumi Yoshimura says he plans to ask the central government to designate the prefecture as an area requiring stronger measures against the pandemic that are legally binding, saying that the region has already entered the "fourth wave" of infections. Osaka is the first in the country to seek binding measures to stop the spread of the virus, based on a revised law that took effect in February, which include fines for businesses that do not comply with restrictions on operating hours. On Sunday, Osaka reported 323 new infections, higher than Tokyo's 313.

3:30 p.m. Tokyo reports 234 new cases, down from 313 a day earlier. Still, the seven-day average of new cases for the capital rose 18.1% from a week ago to 357.

1:00 p.m. A new factory in Abu Dhabi will start manufacturing a COVID-19 vaccine from Chinese pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm later this year under a joint venture between Sinopharm and Abu Dhabi-based technology company Group 42 (G42). The project is an expansion of Chinese diplomacy in the Gulf region and helps the United Arab Emirates' quest to diversify its economy away from hydrocarbon production.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan show the Chinese-made vaccine from Sinopharm during their meeting in Abu Dhabi on March 28. (WAM/Handout via Reuters)

11:50 a.m. Vietnam's GDP grew 4.48% in the first quarter of 2021 from the same period a year earlier, government data shows. The expansion compared with 3.8% growth in the first quarter of 2020 and 4.48% in the fourth quarter. The industrial and construction sector in the January-March period grew 6.3% from a year earlier, while the services sector rose 3.34%. The first quarter growth, however, fell below the 5.12% expected by the government.

11:30 a.m. A panel of South Korean advisers determined that a coronavirus vaccine from Johnson & Johnson was safe and effective, moving the single-dose shot a step closer to regulatory approval. When approved, the J&J vaccine will be the third COVID-19 jab authorized in South Korea, following ones from AstraZeneca and Pfizer/BioNTech. South Korea has an agreement to receive 6 million doses of the J&J vaccine and has said it will be ready for inoculation from the second quarter.

11:00 a.m. China reports 15 new cases for Sunday, up from eight a day earlier. All the new cases originated from overseas. The number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed cases, fell to 18 from 19 a day earlier.

10:25 a.m. South Korea reports 384 cases, down from 482 a day ago, bringing the country total to 102,141 with 1,726 deaths. The government will pay the fourth "disaster subsidy" to small business owners and self-employed people starting from Monday.

9:30 a.m. Australia announces a snap three-day lockdown in Brisbane from Monday afternoon as authorities try to halt an outbreak of the U.K. variant. About 2 million people in the country's third-largest city must stay home from 5 p.m. local time except for essential work, health care, grocery shopping or exercise.

Sunday, March 28

11:55 p.m. A total of 30,151,287 people in Britain have received the first dose of a vaccine -- about 57% of all adults -- while 3,527,481 have been given their second dose. "The vaccine is saving lives and is our route out of this pandemic," said health minister Matt Hancock.

8:30 p.m. Russian President Vladimir Putin said he expected his country to reach herd immunity and lift pandemic-related restrictions by the end of summer, the Interfax news agency reports, citing the president's televised comments. Putin, who was vaccinated this week with a Russian vaccine, also said the only side effects were slight muscle pains and discomfort at the point of the injection.

2:23 p.m. India's western state of Maharashtra imposes night curfews to tackle a record surge in COVID-19 cases, with financial capital Mumbai reporting 6,123 new cases -- the highest single-day spike since last March.

India logs 62,714 cases of the coronavirus in the last 24 hours, the health ministry says, the highest single-day tally since mid-October. With 312 deaths, single-day mortality figures were also at their highest since Christmas.

3:24 a.m. A World Health Organization-backed program to supply coronavirus vaccines to poorer countries expects the Serum Institute of India to resume full deliveries of the AstraZeneca shot to it in May, UNICEF says. "Deliveries of SII/AZ vaccine are expected to begin fully again by May, with catch-up deliveries to reach every participant's full allocation up to May, accelerating thereafter," a UNICEF spokeswoman tells Reuters via email.

Saturday, March 27

11:32 p.m. Indonesia expects a slowdown in COVID-19 inoculations next month as India delays shipments of AstraZeneca vaccines, its health minister says. India has put a temporary hold on all major exports of the AstraZeneca coronavirus shot made by the Serum Institute of India, prioritizing domestic demand as cases rise.

India's move will affect supplies to the GAVI/WHO-backed global COVAX vaccine-sharing facility, through which 64 lower-income countries, including Indonesia, are supposed to get doses from SII.

8:11 p.m. The Serum Institute of India now hopes to launch by September a vaccine developed with U.S.-based biotech firm Novavax, according to SII CEO Adar Poonawalla. Clinical trials of Corovax have kicked off in India, Poonawalla tweets, without explaining why the vaccine launch was delayed from June.

7:30 p.m. The Philippines will reimpose stricter quarantine measures in capital Manila and nearby provinces as the country battles to contain a surge in COVID-19 cases that put a bigger strain on hospitals. Presidential spokesman Harry Roque says the measures, which will be in place until April 4, will ban nonessential movement, mass gatherings and in-restaurant dining. They represent a further tightening of curbs imposed March 22.

The health ministry reports 9,595 new coronavirus cases, marking the second straight day that the daily increase exceeds 9,000. The country has posted a record rise in three of the past five days.

3:26 a.m. The World Health Organization urges countries to donate COVID-19 vaccine doses to inoculate the most vulnerable in 20 poorer nations after India, a key supplier to the agency's COVAX vaccine-sharing program, says it is prioritizing local needs.

2:46 a.m. The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is still recommended for use while studies continue to look for any potential link to "very rare" side effects, including blood clots, a senior World Health Organization official says.

Brazil's health minister urges Pfizer to speed up vaccine deliveries [Yahoo Finance, 30 Mar 2021]

by Eduardo Simoes, Ana Mano and Dan Grebler

SAO PAULO, March 29 (Reuters) - Brazil's Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga asked representatives of pharmaceutical firm Pfizer Inc if they can speed up delivery of 50 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, according to a statement from the ministry on Monday.

The Brazilian government previously ordered 100 million doses of Pfizer's vaccine.

COVID-19 has killed more than 312,000 people in Brazil and more than 12.5 million have been diagnosed with the respiratory disease, according to health ministry data. Only the United States has reported more deaths and cases.

"We need to expand our vaccination capacity now," Queiroga told Pfizer, according to the statement. "I invite you to make joint efforts to ensure these vaccines as soon as possible," he told the company.

Queiroga met with Pfizer's Brazil Chief Executive Marta Diez and other representatives of the drug maker to discuss the schedule for deliveries of the vaccine.

Pfizer has previously said it plans to start delivering doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to the Brazilian government between April and May.

Under an initial delivery plan foreseen in the contract, the Health Ministry will receive 13.5 million doses in the second quarter and 86.5 million in the third quarter, according to the ministry's statement.

Pfizer, Moderna vaccines reduce COVID-19 infection risk by 90% after second dose: U.S. study [Reuters, 30 Mar 2021]

By Ankur Banerjee & Vishwadha Chander

(Reuters) - COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer Inc with BioNTech SE and Moderna Inc reduced the risk of infection by 80% two weeks or more after the first of two shots, according to data from a real-world U.S. study released on Monday.

The risk of infection fell 90% by two weeks after the second shot, the study of just under 4,000 vaccinated U.S. healthcare personnel and first responders found.

The study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) evaluated the vaccines’ ability to protect against infection, including infections that did not cause symptoms.
Previous clinical trials by the companies evaluated their vaccine’s efficacy in preventing illness from COVID-19.

The findings from of the real-world use of these messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines confirm the efficacy demonstrated in the large controlled clinical trials conducted before they received emergency use authorizations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The study looked at the effectiveness of the mRNA vaccines among 3,950 participants in six states over a 13-week period from Dec. 14, 2020 to March 13, 2021.

“The authorized mRNA COVID-19 vaccines provided early, substantial real-world protection against infection for our nation’s healthcare personnel, first responders, and other frontline essential workers,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement.

The new mRNA technology is a synthetic form of a natural chemical messenger being used to instruct cells to make proteins that mirror part of the novel coronavirus. That teaches the immune system to recognize and attack the actual virus.

The CDC study comes weeks after real-world data from Israel suggested that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was 94% effective in preventing asymptomatic infections.

Some countries, including Britain and Canada, are allowing extended gaps between doses that differ from how the vaccines were tested in clinical trials in order to alleviate supply constraints. In the trials, there was a three-week gap between Pfizer shots and four weeks for the Moderna vaccine.

In Britain, authorities said in January that data supported its decision to move to 12 weeks between the first and second Pfizer/BioNtech shots. Pfizer and its German partner have warned that they had no evidence to prove that.