Coronavirus Breaking News

Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued an Executive Order (GA-34) on March 2, 2021, lifting the mask mandate in Texas and increasing the capacity of all businesses and facilities in the state to 100 percent.

"With the medical advancements of vaccines and antibody therapeutic drugs, Texas now has the tools to protect Texans from the virus,” commented Governor Abbott in a press release. Make no mistake, COVID-19 has not disappeared, but it is clear from the recoveries, vaccinations, reduced hospitalizations, and safe practices that Texans are using that state mandates are no longer needed."

"We must now do more to restore livelihoods and normalcy for Texans by opening Texas 100 percent."

Today's announcement does not abandon safe practices that Texans have mastered over the past year. Instead, it is a reminder that each person has a role to play in their own personal safety and the safety of others. With this executive order, we are ensuring that all businesses and families in Texas have the freedom to determine their own destiny."

This executive order rescinds most of the Texas Governor's earlier executive orders related to COVID-19. Effective next Wednesday, all businesses of any type may open to 100% capacity. Businesses may still limit capacity or implement additional safety protocols at their own discretion.

However, if COVID-19 hospitalizations in any of the 22 hospital regions in Texas reaches above 15% of the hospital bed capacity in that region for seven straight days, a County Judge in that region may use COVID-19 mitigation strategies. However, County Judges may not impose jail time for not following COVID-19 orders nor may any penalties be imposed for failing to wear a face mask. If restrictions are imposed at a County level, those restrictions may not include reducing capacity to less than 50% for any type of entity.

Sitka, Alaska's civic center, looks different from many in the lower 48 states, wrote Katerine Rose with NPR. There are no lines and no crowds. Patients arrive every few minutes for their COVID-19 vaccination appointments.

They don't have to wait very long before a nurse directs them to roll up their sleeves.

Dr. Elliot Bruhl, the chief medical officer at the Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium in Sitka, says health workers can vaccinate around 750 people each week. The public health goal is vaccinating whole communities, Alaska Native people and non-Native residents alike.

"As these (COVID-19) vaccines came, we saw it as a moral and ethical imperative that we did not leave vaccines sitting in the freezer," says Dr. Bruhl.

Bruhl says they received enough supply of the vaccine from both the state and the Indian Health Service (IHS), and the IHS has been extremely efficient in getting vaccines out, reported Rose.

A recent study published by researchers from India's Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) on February 20, 2021, found 7,569 SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus variants in India alone.

These researchers stated 'the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 can render it more infectious via adaptive mutations that increase affinity or enhance binding to host cells, while escape mutations that can help it evade the immune response have serious implications for vaccines and therapeutics and can adversely impact the severity and mortality of the disease.'

'As multiple vaccines are rolled out in the year ahead, the virus will be subjected to new selection pressures and evolution modes. India has so far not been sequencing SARS-CoV-2 isolates to full capacity, having deposited only about 6,400 genomes of the over 10.4 million recorded cases (0.06%). Exploiting advances in genomic epidemiology by monitoring and increasing sequencing efforts following local spikes will go a long way in staying on top of mutations of concern. At the same time, their biology and effects are studied in greater detail.'

“The novel variants that are worrying many countries globally have been identified with only a low prevalence in India so far. These include variants with immune-escape E484K mutation and the N501Y mutation with a higher transmission rate. However, their apparent low prevalence might be simply because not enough sequencing has been done."

"More coronavirus genomes need to be sequenced across the country to identify the emergence of these and other new variants accurately,” said Dr. Rakesh Mishra, Director, CCMB, in an article by India Times on February 27, 2021.

The Canadian Minister of Transport, the Honourable Omar Alghabra, announced new Interim Orders during the COVID-19 pandemic, which prohibit pleasure craft in Canadian Arctic waters and cruise vessels in all Canadian waters until February 28, 2022.

This means adventure-seeking pleasure craft are still prohibited from entering Arctic waters; passenger vessels carrying more than 12 people are still prohibited from entering Arctic coastal waters, including Nunatsiavut, Nunavik, and the Labrador Coast; and cruise vessels carrying more than 100 people are still prohibited from operating in Canadian waters.

Essential passenger vessels, such as ferries and water taxis, should continue to follow local public health guidance and protocols and follow mitigation measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and prevent future outbreaks.

“As Canadians continue to do their part to reduce the spread of COVID-19, our government continues to work hard to ensure Canada’s transportation system remains safe. Temporary prohibitions to cruise vessels and pleasure craft are essential to protect the most vulnerable among our communities and avoid overwhelming our health care systems. This is the right and responsible thing to do, stated Honourable Omar Alghabra in a press statement issued on February 4, 2021.

Those who do not comply with the pleasure craft prohibition could be subject to penalties: $5,000 per day for individuals and $25,000 per day for groups or corporations. And those who do not comply with the passenger vessel prohibition could be liable on summary conviction to a fine of up to $1 million or imprisonment for a term of up to 18 months, or both.

Diagnostic testing analyzes the qualitative detection of nucleic acid from the COVID-19 disease in upper and lower respiratory specimens, says the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The real-time Data Tracker reported about 328 million RT-PCR diagnostic tests, excluding antibody and antigen tests, have been performed to confirm SARS-CoV-2 virus infections as of February 25, 2021.

And, as of February 23, 2021, the U.S. FDA had authorized 331 coronavirus diagnostic tests, including 247 molecular tests, 70 antibody tests, and 14 antigen tests during the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, 35 molecular authorizations can be used with home-collected samples.

The American Dental Hygienists’ Association recently published a study that estimated the prevalence of COVID-19 among the United States dental hygienists was low.

As of October 8, 2020, a total of 4,776 dental hygienists from all 50 states and Puerto Rico participated in the study. Of the respondents, 3.1% had ever tested positive or been diagnosed with COVID-19.

The majority of study respondents (99.1%) who practiced dental hygiene reported their primary dental practice had enhanced infection prevention or control efforts in response to the pandemic.

Most dental practices disinfected between patient visits (97.9%), asked staff to use masks (97.8%), screening patients before treatment (96.7%), and (96.8%) of dental hygienists reported at least five infection-control measures at their primary practice.

California-based AIVITA Biomedical, Inc., announced the completion of a Phase 1 clinical study in Indonesia of its personalized vaccine candidate, AV-COVID-19, for the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The 27-participant Phase 1 study showed the treatment was well-tolerated, with no serious adverse events, and that treated individuals produced antibodies.

The clinical program is being conducted by PT AIVITA Biomedika Indonesia, a joint venture established between AIVITA and local partners with support from the government of Indonesia. AV-COVID-19 is being manufactured locally by AIVITA.

AIVITA is in discussions with regulatory authorities for a Phase 2 study in Indonesia, as well as a clinical investigation of AV-COVID-19 in the USA in early 2021.

“We continue to see an unprecedented global need for preventative vaccines that can be rapidly scaled and adapted to provide protection against all COVID-19 viral variants,” said Hans Keirstead, Ph.D., chief executive officer of AIVITA, in a press release.

“Our personalized vaccine can be created locally to support regional economic stimulation, using a kit that can be produced rapidly at scale. In addition, our materials can be adapted to quickly create new vaccines against mutations of the virus. With this decentralized model, we can conduct studies in Indonesia and prepare for worldwide distribution.”

AIVITA Biomedical, Inc. is a personalized vaccine company evaluating vaccines for the prevention of COVID-19 infection and treatment of cancer.