A fourth COVID-19 booster mRNA vaccine has proven ineffective against Omicron infection, according to preliminary research from Israel released on Monday. “Despite a significant increase in antibodies after the fourth vaccine, this protection is only partially effective against the Omicron strain, which is relatively resistant to the vaccine,” lead researcher Prof Gili Regev-Yochay, told a […] Continue reading ->
France’s newest measure to tackle COVID-19 – requiring a certificate of vaccination at public places such as restaurants, cafes, cinemas, and long-distance trains – was approved by its parliament on Sunday. With lawmakers in the lower house of parliament voting 215 to 58 in favour, the law is set to be enforced in coming days. […] Continue reading ->
Rwanda became the recipient of the one-billionth COVID-19 vaccine delivered by COVAX, the global platform set up to ensure equitable access to the vaccines,announced last Friday. After numerous supply problems – most seriously when its key supplier, the Serum Insitute of India, was banned from exporting its vaccines by the Indian government – COVAX was […] Continue reading ->
Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, monitoring sewage for evidence of disease – in this case COVID-19 – may be on the verge of becoming mainstream. At least that is what some trend-setting researchers are hoping to detect rising SARS-CoV2 infections early and set policies based on data even before swab testing can provide it. […] Continue reading ->
Two new treatments for COVID-19 were recommended on Thursday by the World Health Organization’s Guideline Development Group of international experts – one for severely ill patients and the other for those patients who are not severely ill but most likely to develop severe disease. The recommendations were announced Friday morning in the BMJ. Both drugs, […] Continue reading ->
COVID-19 vaccination in Africa may be shifting from a supply challenge – to one of effective vaccine distribution, declared a senior World Health Organization official in the African Region on Thursday. African countries will have adequate access to COVID-19 vaccine supplies in 2022, said Dr Abdou Salam Gueye, Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response, WHO […] Continue reading ->
CAPE TOWN – A locally produced COVID-19 rapid antigen test that was recently approved by South Africa’s medicines regulator is able to detect Omicron, according to its developer. This follows some controversy about whether antigen tests were able to detect Omicron, and suggestions that throat swabs might be more effective than nasal swabs as Omicron […] Continue reading ->
The European Union (EU) has described India’s call for an urgent meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference to discuss the body’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including a proposed waiver of relevant intellectual property protections, as “premature”. Addressing the WTO General Council informal meeting on Monday, EU Ambassador João Aguiar Machado said […] Continue reading ->
The first generic version of Paxlovid, the Pfizer pill that has proven highly effective in treating COVID-19, is already available in Bangladesh. However, Indian generic company Dr Reddy’s, which has started to produce the Merck antiviral, molnupiravir, might be in trouble after the country’s National Task Force for COVID-19 resolved on Monday that there were […] Continue reading ->
Some researchers and governments are questioning the accuracy of rapid antigen tests to identify Omicron – and it has been suggested that rapid tests based on throat- instead of nasal swabs might be more accurate in detecting the highly infectious COVID-19 variant. Last week, a small pre-print study reported that 29 fully vaccinated and boosted […] Continue reading ->