The coronavirus disease COVID-19 is currently reaching pandemic levels in various countries.
Moderna, Inc. announced that the Canadian Government has increased its confirmed order commitment by 20 million doses of Moderna’s experimental vaccine candidate against COVID-19, mRNA-1273, bringing its confirmed order commitment to 40 million doses.
"We appreciate our collaboration with the Canadian government as with many other governments and other key partners around the world,” said Stephane Bancel, Moderna’s CEO, in a press statement.
AbCellera Biologics Inc. announced terms of its IPO which could value the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered drug discovery company at up to $4.52 billion, reported MarketWatch. The Vancouver-based company has worked with Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly & Co. on the human antibody Bamlanivimab.
Bamlanivimab obtained Emergency Use Authorization from the U.S. FDA on November 10, 2020, to treat COVID-19 patients. About 1 million doses are anticipated to be manufactured by the end of 2020.
The U.S. CDC published updated data indicating over 199 million diagnostic tests, excluding antibody, and antigen tests have been performed to confirm if a person has a SARS-CoV-2 virus infection.
In 2020, the state of California leads the USA with 20,318,880 coronavirus tests performed, followed by New York (18,672,299), Florida (14,360,091), and Texas (12,022,234), as of December 6, 2020.
Indonesia received its first shipment of 1.2 million CoronaVac coronavirus vaccine from China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd. on December 6, 2020, President Joko Widodo announced, reported the Tribune. Jokowi added that the government plans to receive another 1.8 million doses in early January 2020.
The experimental vaccine still needs to be evaluated by Indonesia’s food and drug agency.
About 800,00 doses of BioNTech's experimental BNT162b2 vaccine arrived in the U.K. in super-cold containers on December 7, 2020, two days before it goes public in an immunization program, reported the AP.
The U.K. became the first country to authorize the BioNtech vaccine for emergency use on December 2, 2020.
Pfizer India is reported by the Times of India on December 6, 2020, to become the first pharmaceutical firm to approach the Drugs Controller General of India seeking authorization for its experimental COVID-19 mRNA vaccine candidate, BNT162b2, in India.
Previously, Pfizer announced vaccine distribution agreements with the countries of the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Bahrain.
The COVID-19 mRNA vaccine is a nucleoside-modified RNA, formulated in lipid nanoparticles, and encodes an optimized SARS-CoV-2 full-length spike protein antigen.
A study reported a repurposed antiviral drug, Molnupiravir, completely suppresses coronavirus transmission within 24 hours. Dr. Richard Plemper, Distinguished University Professor at Georgia State, originally discovered that the drug is potent against influenza viruses.
“This is the first demonstration of an orally available drug to rapidly block SARS-CoV-2 transmission,” said Dr. Plemper in a press statement issued on December 3, 2020. “MK-4482/EIDD-2801 could be game-changing.”
The Russian Federation's capital city of Moscow's mayor Sergey Sobyanin announced on his website 'in the first five hours, 5,000 people signed up for the vaccination, including teachers, doctors, social workers, those who today most of all risk their health and lives.'
The Moscow Times reported on December 5, 2020, 'Authorities, who estimate that over 100,000 Russians have already received the Sputnik V vaccine, have said the nationwide vaccination program would be free and voluntary.'
A study published by the JAMA indicates that Black and Hispanic populations are not inherently more susceptible to poor COVID-19 outcomes compared with other groups and that once hospitalized, Black patients were less likely than White patients to have a critical illness or die, after adjustment for comorbidity and neighborhood characteristics.
“We know that Black and Hispanic populations account for a disproportionate share of COVID-19–related deaths relative to their population size in major US cities,” stated Dr. Gbenga Ogedegbe, at NYU Langone, and the study’s lead author, in a press release issued on December 4, 2020.
Additionally, after adjusting for all factors, this study found Asian patients had higher odds of being hospitalized than White patients, even though they were less likely to receive positive COVID-19 test results.
The U.S. FDA issued an Emergency Use Authorization for the Lumin LM3000 Bioburden Reduction UV System on December 3, 2020. This innovative ultraviolet-C (UV-C) light-based bioburden reduction system is used in bioburden reduction of certain N95 respirators when there are insufficient supplies of filtering facepiece respirators resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Manufactured by 3B Medical Inc., this is a Tier 3 system intended for bioburden reduction (or reduction of microorganisms) of 3M Model 1860 N95 respirators only, and only for single-user reuse, and is a supplement to the U.S. CDC reuse recommendations.
The COVID-19 Data Tracker reported on December 4, 2020, there were 193,633,572 coronavirus-related diagnostic tests completed during 2020. These test results indicated an overall 7.97% positivity rate.
During the past week, the states of New York (1,058,466) and Texas (603,922) reported the most test results to the U.S. CDC.
In a study published by the journal Cell on December 4, 2020, a team of researchers from Gladstone, UC Berkeley, and UCSF outlined the technology for a CRISPR-based test for COVID-19 that uses a smartphone camera to provide accurate results in under 30-minutes.
These researchers 'combined crRNAs targeting SARS-CoV-2 RNA to improve sensitivity and specificity and directly quantified viral load using enzyme kinetics. Integrated with a reader device based on a mobile phone, this assay has the potential to enable rapid, low-cost, point-of-care screening for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.'
'In the new test, the Cas13 protein is combined with a reporter molecule that becomes fluorescent when cut, and then mixed with a patient sample from a nasal swab. The sample is placed in a device that attaches to a smartphone. If the sample contains RNA from SARS-CoV-2, Cas13 will be activated and will cut the reporter molecule, causing the emission of a fluorescent signal.'
'Then, the smartphone camera, essentially converted into a microscope, can detect the fluorescence and report that a swab tested positive for the virus.'
The US state of Delaware's Governor John Carney and the Delaware Division of Public Health announced on December 3, 2020, it will institute a universal mask mandate statewide, requiring Delawareans to wear a cloth face-covering anytime they are indoors with anyone outside their immediate household.
The Kingdom of Bahrain announced it has granted emergency use authorization for the BioNTech developed COVID-19 vaccine reported Arabnews.com.
Dr. Mariam Al-Jalahma, with Bahrain’s National Health Regulatory Authority, stated: 'The BNT162b2 vaccine will be made available to groups at greater risk of contracting complications from the (SARS-CoV-2) coronavirus, including the elderly, people with chronic diseases, and other groups identified by the health ministry as vulnerable.'
The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) Mortality Surveillance data available on December 3, 2020, indicates 12.8% of the deaths occurring during the week ending November 28, 2020 (week #48), were due to pneumonia, influenza, and COVID-19 (PIC).
Among the 2,094 PIC deaths reported for week #48 by the NCHS, 1,397 had COVID-19 listed as an underlying or contributing cause of death on the death certificate, and 3 listed influenza, indicating that the current increase in PIC mortality is due primarily to COVID-19, and not influenza.
Furthermore, there were (0) influenza-associated pediatric deaths reported to CDC during week #48, and none confirmed throughout the 2020-2021 flu season.
