Coronavirus Breaking News

Reuters reported the Chilean Public Health Institute announced on January 27, 2021, the approval of the AstraZeneca-Oxford COVID-19 vaccine (AZD1222) for emergency use by a unanimous vote of its advisory board. The vaccine approval is for use for Chileans over the age of 18 and without an upper age limit.

The experimental AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is made from a virus (ChAdOx1), a weakened version of a common cold virus (adenovirus). Genetic material has been added to the ChAdOx1 construct, which is used to make proteins from the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus called Spike glycoprotein.

According to Chile's Department of Statistics and Health Information, in the last 24 hours there were 17 deaths due to causes associated with COVID-19. The total number of deceased amounts to 18,040 in Chile during the COVID-19 pandemic.

France-based Sanofi and Germany-based BioNTech announced they have today entered into an agreement under which Sanofi will support the manufacturing and supply of BioNTech’s Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccine, which is being co-developed with Pfizer.

Sanofi will provide BioNTech access to its established infrastructure and expertise to produce over 125 million doses of the Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccine in Europe. Initial supplies will originate from Sanofi’s production facilities in Frankfurt from the summer of 2021.

Paul Hudson, the CEO of Sanofi, stated in a press release issued on January 27, 2021, “Although vaccination campaigns have started around the world, the ability to get shots into arms is being limited by lower than expected supplies and delayed approval timelines owing to production shortages. We have made the decision to support BioNTech and Pfizer in manufacturing their COVID-19 vaccine in order to help address global needs, given that we have the technology and facilities to do so."

"As always, our top priority is to focus our efforts and capabilities on fighting this global pandemic. First and foremost, we will do this by continuing to develop our own COVID-19 vaccine candidates, in parallel with this industrial cooperation.”

The WHO Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization issued Interim recommendations on January 26, 2021, for the use of the Moderna mRNA-1273 vaccine against COVID-19.

The new SAGE recommendations included, but are not limited to the following: the Moderna vaccine is safe and effective in people with known medical conditions associated with increased risk of severe diseases, as well as chronic infections that are stable and controlled.

Although further studies are required for immunocompromised persons, people in this category who are part of a group recommended for vaccination may be vaccinated after receiving information and counseling. And known HIV-positive vaccine recipients should be provided with information and counseling.

And, Moderna's vaccine can be offered to a breastfeeding woman who is part of a group recommended for vaccination (e.g., health workers). Discontinuing breastfeeding after vaccination is currently not recommended.

However, SAGE stated, 'While pregnancy puts women at a higher risk of severe COVID-19, the use of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in pregnant women is currently not recommended, unless they are at risk of high exposure (e.g., health workers).'

The Ontario government announced on January 25, 2021, it is accelerating the vaccination of residents in long-term care, high-risk retirement, and First Nations elder care homes by a new target date of February 5, 2021.

And to protect access to second doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Comirnaty vaccine for those who have already received their first dose, Ontario will maintain the maximum interval of 21-27 days for long-term care, retirement, and First Nations elder care home resident groups and up to 42 days between the two doses for all other groups.

As of January 26th, Ontario reported 83,285 total vaccinations completed. And 5,909 COVID-19 related fatalities have been confirmed during the pandemic.

Following notification by the Canadian federal government of reductions in Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine shipments, these vaccination adjustments are being made.

Various media sources reported that Ontario Premier Doug Ford calls on the federal government to increase restrictions for anyone looking to travel into Canada.

“Close down any travel coming into Canada, outside of residents of Canada or citizens of Canada,” Ford said at a press conference on January 26, 2021. “There’s no reason we need people coming in.”

The U.S. NIH announced a worldwide clinical trial found full dose anticoagulation (blood thinner) treatments given to moderately ill patients hospitalized for COVID-19 reduced the requirement of vital organ support—such as the need for ventilation.

Moderately ill patients are those not in intensive care and who did not receive organ support such as mechanical ventilation at trial enrollment, said the NIH in a press statement issued on January 22, 2021.

Three clinical trial platforms spanning five continents in more than 300 hospitals have been working together to test whether there is a greater benefit of full doses of heparin (blood thinners) to treat moderately ill hospitalized adults with COVID-19 compared to the lower heparin dose typically administered to prevent blood clots in hospitalized patients.

Based on the interim results of more than 1,000 moderately ill patients admitted to the hospital, the findings showed that full doses of blood thinners, in addition to being safe, were superior to the doses normally given to prevent blood clots in hospitalized patients. The trial investigators are now working as fast as possible to make the full results of the study available so clinicians can make informed decisions about treating their COVID-19 patients.

Heparin is in a class of medications called anticoagulants ('blood thinners'). It works by decreasing the clotting ability of the blood, says MedlinePlus.

Canadian Blood Services and Canada’s COVID-19 Immunity Task Force (CITF) announced results from their collaborative nine-province SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence study that suggests that 1.5 % of healthy Canadians had been exposed to SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing COVID-19.

“Although this represents a doubling in comparison to an initial report following the first wave in May and June 2020, the overall seroprevalence – the number of people with antibodies, which suggests a previous COVID-19 infection – remains very low."

"Canada remains a long way from herd immunity,” said CITF Executive Director Tim Evans, in a press release.

This analysis is based on 33,860 blood samples from blood donor centers across Canada (excluding Quebec and the Territories) collected in October and November 2020. Donors aged between 17 and 24 years old had the highest seroprevalence rates (2.97%).

Dr. Catherine Hankins, CITF Co-Chair, added: “However, even using serology to add cases to our count that never came to light through formal diagnostic tests, it is clear that the vast majority of Canadians remain vulnerable to COVID-19. We have no choice but to keep up public health measures until vaccine-induced immunity grows substantially.”

Canadian Blood Services is moving towards using a new assay to test blood samples that will allow them to differentiate between infection-acquired and vaccine-acquired immunity.

The UK's Department of Health and Social Care and Government Office for Science published a paper from the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG) on new coronavirus (COVID-19) variant B.1.1.7. on January 22, 2021.

This NERVTAG paper summarized its recent findings as follows: 'The variant of concern (VOC) B.1.1.7 appears to have substantially increased transmissibility compared to other variants and has grown quickly to become the dominant variant in much of the UK.'

An updated UK matched cohort analysis has reported a death risk ratio for VOC infected individuals compared to non-VOC of 1.65 (95% CI 1.21-2.25). Based on these analyses, there is a real possibility that infection with VOC B.1.1.7 is associated with an increased risk of death than infection with non-VOC viruses.

However, an analysis of CO-CIN data has not identified an increased risk of death in hospitalized VOC B.1.1.7 cases. The analysis found an increased case severity may not necessarily be reflected by increased in-hospital death risk. Furthermore, it should be noted that the absolute risk of death per COVID-19 infection remains low.