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WHO says Covid is spreading quicker than the worldwide distribution of vaccines

New coronavirus variants are fueling a ‘second wave’ in Africa, WHO warns

Funeral directors wearing personal protective equipment carry a coffin during the funeral of a COVID-19 victim amid a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) nationwide lockdown at Olifantsvlei Cemetery, southwest of Joburg, South Africa, Jan. 6, 2021.

Siphiwe Sibeko | Reuters

The global spread of Covid-19 is advancing faster than the global distribution of vaccines, World Health Organization officials said on Monday.

They attributed transmission rates to new variants like Alpha and Delta, which have proven to be more contagious.

“This means that the risks for people who are not protected, ie most of the world’s population, have increased,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a press conference.

While the number of new cases of the virus continues to decline worldwide, the number of deaths has not decreased by the same amount, he said. Since the pandemic began, more than 3.8 million people have died of Covid worldwide.

A person receives a dose of Pfizer BioNTech vaccine at a vaccination center for people over 18 years old at the Belmont Health Center in Harrow amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in London, Great Britain, June 6, 2021.

Henry Nicholls | Reuters

The number of new cases has declined for seven straight weeks, the longest decline in the world since the pandemic began. But the number of deaths reported this week is still similar to last week, he said.

“While weekly cases are at their lowest level since February, deaths are not falling anytime soon,” Tedros said. “The global decline hides worrying increases in cases and deaths in many countries.”

Countries in Africa have higher Covid death rates than other countries, he said. The higher death rates are particularly worrying as African countries have reported fewer cases than most other regions.

African countries also have the least access to vaccines, diagnostics and oxygen supplies, underscoring the impact of medical inequality that global health authorities have warned about.

“There are enough vaccine doses around the world to contain transmission and save many lives when used in the right places for the right people,” said Tedros.

The G-7 have pledged to distribute 870 million doses of vaccine around the world, but WHO says more are needed.

“This is a big help, but we need more and we need it faster. More than 10,000 people die every day,” said Tedros.

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Health

CDC masks pointers may improve threat of spreading Covid at work and in public, scientists say

CDC mask guidelines could increase risk of spreading Covid at work and in public, scientists say

People without a mask are walking in Times Square in New York City on May 19, 2021.

John Smith | VIEW press | Corbis News | Getty Images

The CDC’s new mask guidelines could actually increase the risk of Covid-19 spreading in public spaces and workplaces, scientists from a leading group of infectious diseases said Thursday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention abruptly reversed their mask guidelines for vaccinated Americans last week to say that vaccinated people will no longer need to wear a mask indoors or outdoors in most settings. Officials said they changed their guidelines in part because research shows the vaccines offer very high levels of protection against the disease of Covid-19 and spread it to others.

“There is no debate about this fact,” said Dr. Jeffrey Duchin, who sits on the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, at a news conference hosted Thursday by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. However, the agency’s announcement created widespread confusion and frustration because “it was unexpected and lacked the necessary context for implementation by the state and local health community,” he said.

Duchin is the society’s liaison with the CDC’s Vaccination Committee. The company represents leading specialists in infectious diseases in the USA

“There was no information on how the guidelines could be used in practice, particularly in relation to the inability to check vaccination status,” said Duchin. The CDC also did not provide guidance on whether people should continue to wear masks in areas with high transmission rates or low vaccination rates, he said. “What the CDC did, however, was not optimal and gave the wrong impression that the mask mandates were being lifted.”

Doctors across the country and federal health officials continue to stress that only vaccinated people are safe to remove their masks. The new mask management was misinterpreted as the end of the pandemic and mask mandates, which puts the local health authorities in a very difficult position. States in the United States took the news as a cue to facilitate mask mandates. Texas Governor Greg Abbott used the new guidance to justify signing an executive order that threatens the fine for local officials and communities for not dropping mask requirements.

Duchin said that both vaccinated and unvaccinated people are likely safe outdoors without masks, but they are not indoors.

“Now the risk of Covid-19 spreading in crowded indoor spaces with unvaccinated people and especially with poor ventilation is increased,” said Duchin. While the CDC’s scientific basis for the change is “solid,” Duchin said ending the mandate for inner masks “could lead to increased risk in public spaces and workplaces with avoidable spread of Covid-19, mostly among the unvaccinated spreads. “

Vaccination rates vary across the country, and the majority of those vaccinated are older adults. Large subgroups such as younger adults remain unvaccinated.

Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, who also spoke at the briefing, said research has shown that up to 3% of Americans have been told by their doctors that they have some level of immunodeficiency, which puts them at an increased risk of being exposed to Covid be.

“Millions of people fit that bill, and we literally have very little data on whether the vaccine works in them,” Marrazzo said. “There is a real reason to be careful and interpret the guidelines carefully.”

The scientists also said people need to acknowledge that there is uncertainty about the future course of the pandemic, the effects of emerging variants, the duration of immunity, and the potential for a Covid-19 resurgence.

“The Covid-19 outbreak is by no means over, there is still significant uncertainty and there is still significant disease activity,” said Duchin.

If someone is fully vaccinated and doesn’t have other conditions that threaten their community, and if the rate of Covid where they live is relatively low and the vaccination rate is high, Marrazzo said it would be “100% okay, pretty much anywhere without one. ” Mask.”

Marrazzo added that despite being fully vaccinated, she will continue to wear a mask around the house as vaccination rates in her community are not even 50%.

“If I knew we were seeing really notable decreases in hospital stays and symptomatic illnesses that may be related to Covid and that have a very high vaccination rate, I would probably go without a mask, but I won’t see this anytime soon,” she said.

While nearly half of all people in the United States, 160.2 million, received at least one shot, Marrazzo said only 4.6% of the world’s population did the same.

“People need to be aware of what’s going on and watch out for vaccination rates, look for the involvement of these new varieties and think about being ready to get things going again,” warned Marrazzo.

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that the press conference was hosted by the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

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World News

Covid Desperation Is Spreading Throughout India

Covid Desperation Is Spreading Across India

NEW DELHI – Dozens of bodies washed up on the banks of the Ganges this week, most likely the remains of people who have died of Covid-19.

States in southern India have threatened to stop sharing medical oxygen and they have great protection from holding onto what they have as their hospitals soar with the sick and infections.

And at a hospital in Andhra Pradesh, a rural state in southeastern India, angry relatives raged in the intensive care unit after suddenly running out of life-saving oxygen – the latest example of the same tragedy repeated when patients died while gasping for breath.

The desperation that has plagued New Delhi, India’s capital, in recent weeks is now spreading across the country, hitting states and rural areas with far fewer resources. Positivity rates are rising in these states, and public health experts say the rising numbers are most likely well below the real picture in places where diseases and deaths caused by Covid-19 are harder to track.

It seems that the crisis is entering a new phase. Cases in New Delhi and Mumbai could flatten. But many other places are being overwhelmed by runaway outbreaks. The World Health Organization is now saying that a new variant of the virus discovered in India, B.1.167, may be particularly transmissible, which only increases the feeling of alarm.

Every day the Indian media delivers a huge dose of turmoil and sadness. On Tuesday, televised images of distraught relatives beating angrily on the chests of loved ones who died after the oxygen was depleted, and headlines such as “Bodies of Suspicious Covid-19 Victims Found Floating” and “As Deaths Go Up.” 10 Fold, Worrying “Characters from Smaller States. “

This has always been the burning question: if New Delhi, home to the country’s elite and numerous hospitals, couldn’t handle the surge in coronavirus cases due to a devastating new wave, what would happen in poorer rural areas?

The answer is coming in now.

On Monday evening, Sri Venkateswara Ramnarain Ruia’s government general hospital in Andhra Pradesh ran out of medical oxygen. More than 60 patients were in critical condition and had oxygen masks on their faces. Doctors desperately called to suppliers for help.

But the oxygen ran out and killed 11 people. Distraught family members got so angry, hospital officials said, that they stormed into the intensive care unit, turned tables and smashed equipment. Television images showed women clutching their heads, overwhelmed with grief. Doctors and nurses fled until police officers arrived.

India is suffering from a worrying shortage of medical oxygen and at least 20 other hospitals have run out. Almost 200 patients have died from it, according to an Indian news site that has been following the string of fatal incidents.

At the same time, the national vaccination campaign stutters. The roughly two million doses administered daily for the past few days are lower than the highs a few weeks ago, when the country gave more than three million doses on a few days. Lots of people can’t find dates to get the shot. Some vaccination centers are completely exhausted, officials say.

All of this leads to the harshest criticism that Narendra Modi, India’s powerful prime minister, has faced since he took office seven years ago. He has been widely accused of declaring premature victory over coronavirus and encouraging his country to drop his guard.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party remains by far India’s most powerful political organization. But the solid wall that the party has maintained during this crisis may show some cracks.

Several party setters in Uttar Pradesh, India’s largest state and one controlled by Mr. Modi’s party, have started complaining about the state government’s response.

“There is no break in the corona and we helplessly watch our own people die,” wrote Lokendra Pratap Singh, a lawmaker for Mr. Modi’s party, in a letter that quickly went viral.

Nationwide, the picture remains bleak, although the situation in India’s two largest cities appears to be improving.

The capital New Delhi reported 12,481 new infections on Tuesday, less than half of the infections reported on April 30. The positivity rate among those tested for the coronavirus has steadily declined in the city, from a worrying high to 19 percent from 36 percent a few weeks ago.

Something similar happened in Mumbai, India’s commercial capital, and people are now wondering if the worst is over. The positivity rate in Mumbai has dropped from around 25 percent to around 7 percent.

Hospitals in Delhi that closed their doors last month due to a shortage of life-saving supplies and killed people on the streets are again accepting patients. But the situation for those who get sick is still extremely precarious. On Tuesday afternoon, a cell phone app for New Delhi, a metropolis of 20 million people, showed only 62 free beds in the intensive care unit for Covid-19 patients across the city.

Understand India’s Covid Crisis

Some of the worst-hit states are now in the south, particularly Karnataka, home of India’s Bangalore technology center. An oxygen express train, part of the Modi government’s effort to carry liquid oxygen to Covid-19 hotspots, chugged into Bangalore Tuesday morning.

But the state needs more.

By this week, the southern states had agreed to share the oxygen supply. Now some are arguing to end the collaboration. Neighboring Kerala says it cannot send oxygen because it needs all of its supplies for its own growing needs. Tamil Nadu, also in the south, says the same thing and cannot provide for its poorer neighbor Andhra Pradesh, where the eleven people died on Monday evening at the oxygen limit.

“I can hardly imagine what is going on in rural India,” said Rijo M. John, a health economist in Kerala, where the positivity rate rose from around 8 percent in early April to nearly 27 percent on Tuesday.

Mr John said that rural areas do not have many Covid tests and that many people “may die from not receiving treatment at all”.

One particularly troubling omen came in a river village in Bihar, a rural state in northern India. In the village of Chausa, residents felt deeply uncomfortable after discovering dozens of bodies mysteriously washed up on the banks of the Ganges.

Nobody knows who these people were or how their bodies got there. The villagers found her on Monday evening. Stunned spectators crowded around the remains, many in brightly colored clothes, floating in the shallow water. Images of the bloated bodies have made the rounds in the Indian media and unsettled countless people.

Officials said about 30 bodies were found. Witnesses put the number at over 100.

Every now and then, the villagers said, they see a single corpse floating in the river. It is part of a custom whereby some families send the corpses of loved ones into the Ganges, the holiest river in Hinduism weighed down with stones. But Chausa officials and residents suspect the unprecedented number of bodies they found this week belonged to victims of Covid-19.

“I’ve never seen so many bodies before,” said Arun Kumar Srivastava, a government doctor in Chausa.

When Covid-19 devastated this area, Dr. Srivastava, he saw more and more people carrying corpses, sometimes on their shoulders. “Absolutely,” he said. “More deaths happen.”

Krishna Dutt Mishra, an ambulance driver in Chausa, said many poor people dumped bodies in the river because cremation prices rose from rupees 2,000, about $ 27, to rupees 15,000 since the second wave of Covid. about $ 200, which is an insurmountable amount for most families.

This has become a problem across India. Covid-19 deaths have overwhelmed the grounds for cremation, and some unscrupulous cremation workers are now charging five or even ten times the normal price of the final rites.

“I drove the entire distance from Buxar to Chausa,” said Mishra, referring to another town a little further east. “I’ve never seen a few bodies, let alone so many, lined up along this stretch of the river.”

Hari Kumar and Shalini Venugopal Bhagat contributed to the coverage.

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Health

A New Coronavirus Variant Is Spreading in New York, Researchers Report

A New Coronavirus Variant Is Spreading in New York, Researchers Report

A new form of coronavirus is spreading rapidly in New York City and has a worrying mutation that can make vaccines less effective, two research teams have found.

The new variant, named B.1.526, first appeared in samples collected in the city in November. By the middle of this month, roughly every fourth virus sequence was in a database shared by scientists.

A study of the new variant, led by a group at Caltech, went online on Tuesday. The other was sent to a preprint server by researchers at Columbia University, but is not yet public.

The study has not been peer-reviewed or published in a scientific journal. However, the consistent results suggest the variant’s prevalence is real, experts said.

“It’s not particularly good news,” said Michel Nussenzweig, an immunologist at Rockefeller University who was not involved in the new research. “But just knowing about it is good because then maybe we can do something about it.”

Dr. Nussenzweig said he was more concerned about the New York variant than the one that was quickly spreading in California. Another contagious new variant discovered in the UK currently affects around 2,000 cases in 45 states. It is expected to be the most widespread form of the coronavirus in the United States by the end of March.

Researchers looked at the virus’s genetic material to see how it might change. They examine genetic virus sequences taken from a small fraction of the infected in order to record the emergence of new versions.

Caltech researchers discovered the rise in B.1.526 by looking for mutations in hundreds of thousands of viral genetic sequences in a database called GISAID. “There was a recurring pattern and group of isolates in the New York area that I hadn’t seen,” said Anthony West, a computational biologist at Caltech.

He and his colleagues found that two versions of the coronavirus were more common: one with the E484K mutation seen in South Africa and Brazil, which is believed to help the virus partially evade vaccines; and another with a mutation called S477N that can affect how tightly the virus binds to human cells.

By mid-February, the two together made up about 27 percent of the viral sequences stored in the database in New York City, said Dr. West. (At the moment both are summarized as B.1.526.)

Columbia University researchers took a different approach. They sequenced 1,142 samples from patients at their medical center. They found that 12 percent of people with the coronavirus were infected with the variant that contains the E484K mutation.

Updated

Apr. 24, 2021, 8:33 p.m. ET

Patients infected with the virus that carried this mutation were, on average, about six years older and more likely to be hospitalized. While the majority of patients were found near the hospital – particularly in Washington Heights and Inwood – there were several other cases scattered across the metropolitan area, said Dr. David Ho, director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center.

“We’re seeing cases in Westchester, the Bronx and Queens, lower Manhattan, and Brooklyn,” said Dr. Ho. “So it seems to be widespread. It’s not a single outbreak. “

The team also identified six cases of the variant that beat the UK, two infections with a variant identified in Brazil, and one case of the variant adopted in South Africa. The latter two have never been reported in New York City, said Dr. Ho.

University investigators have alerted New York state and city authorities as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Dr. Ho. He and his colleagues plan to sequence about 100 viral genetic samples daily to monitor the increase in variants.

Other experts said the sudden appearance of coronavirus variants was worrying.

“Given the involvement of E484K or S477N, coupled with the fact that the New York area has strong immunity to the spring wave, this is definitely a good thing,” said Kristian Andersen, a virologist at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, who did not participated in the new research effort.

The E484K mutation has appeared independently in many different parts of the world, suggesting that it offers a significant benefit to the virus.

“Variants that have an advantage will increase in frequency pretty quickly, especially as the numbers decrease overall,” said Andrew Read, an evolutionary microbiologist at Penn State University.

The team of Dr. Ho reported in January that the monoclonal antibodies made by Eli Lilly and one of the monoclonal antibodies in a cocktail made by Regeneron are powerless against the variant identified in South Africa.

Several studies have now shown that variants containing the E484K mutation are less susceptible to vaccines than the original form of the virus. The mutation disrupts the activity of a class of antibodies that almost everyone makes, said Dr. Nut branch.

“People who have recovered from the coronavirus or who have been vaccinated are very likely to be able to fight off this variant, there is no doubt about that,” he said. But “they might get a little sick.”

They could also infect others and keep the virus floating around, which could delay herd immunity, he added.

However, other experts were a little more optimistic. “These things are a little less well controlled by vaccines, but they are no orders of magnitude less, which would scare me,” said Dr. Read.

As the virus evolves, the vaccines need to be tweaked, “but in the scheme of things this isn’t a huge concern compared to having a vaccine missing,” said Dr. Read. “I’d say the glass is three quarters full compared to where we were last year.”