Coronavirus Breaking News

Oct 20, 2020 • 5:32 am CDT

Texas A&M Needs 500 First Responders for COVID-19 Vaccine Study

Texas A&M (TAMU) researchers stated on October 3, 2020, they are looking into an old vaccine's potential to help prevent reduce the COVID-19 pandemic in Texas. In addition to medical professionals participating in the ongoing phase 4 study of the BCG vaccine, first responders such as firefighters and police officers can now see if they are eligible for the study.

These researchers are still able to accept around 500 more individuals to participate who can visit this TAMU website for more information.

Jeffrey Cirillo, Director of A&M’s Center for Airborne Pathogen Research and Tuberculosis Imaging, said in an article 'this vaccine has the potential to be used almost immediately because it’s already FDA approved.'

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Oct 20, 2020 • 4:47 am CDT

Italy Begins Analyzing Its COVID-19 Outbreak

The COVID-19 pandemic revealed challenges inherent to the country of Italy's decentralized healthcare system, stated a new editorial published in The Lancet on October 15, 2020. During the first months of 2020, Italy had the highest number of COVID-19 cases in Europe and in the world.

Lombardy, with a population of 10 million people, was the region of Italy hit the hardest by the pandemic. According to the Italian Ministry of Health's COVID-19 dashboard, the Lombardy region in northern Italy reported one-third of all SARS-CoV-2 cases and about 50% of all COVID-19 related fatalities in Italy.

The Regional Council of Lombardy has now formed a COVID-19 investigative commission within the regional assembly to analyze the sequence of events and the specific choices that led to so many infections and deaths in a region with an extremely high standard of healthcare.

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Oct 19, 2020 • 9:25 pm CDT

Ireland Begins 6-Week Soft Lockdown

Ireland's government announced Level 5 restrictions across the State for (6) weeks beginning October 21, 2020, through December 1st, in a bid to curtail the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, reported The Irish Times.

As part of the new restrictions, the public will be asked to stay within 5km of their home. There are some exceptions for travel such as medical reasons and essential work.

The Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Micheál Martin stated in a video that schools and childcare services are to remain open during the 6-week restrictions, adding that they "could not become another victim of the disease."

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Oct 19, 2020 • 12:16 pm CDT

Factor D May Block SARS-CoV-2 Virus Virility

Blocking a protein that enables the SARS-COV-2 coronavirus to turn the human immune system against healthy cells has been identified in a recent study by a team of Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers.

Based on the findings published in the journal Blood on September 2, 2020, the Johns Hopkins researchers believe that inhibiting the protein, known as factor D, will curtail the potentially deadly inflammatory reactions that many patients have to this coronavirus.

“When we added a small molecule that inhibits the function of factor D, the APC wasn’t activated by the virus spike proteins,” says senior author Robert Brodsky, M.D., director of the hematology division at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

“We believe that when the SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins bind to heparan sulfate, it triggers an increase in the complement-mediated killing of normal cells because factor H, a key regulator of the APC, can’t do its job.”

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Oct 19, 2020 • 11:50 am CDT

US Funds Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children Study

California-based Beckman Coulter announced on October 15, 2020, that it was awarded funding by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority for a multi-center clinical trial to validate the ability of its Monocyte Distribution Width hematology biomarker to aid in the rapid detection of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C).

Recently defined by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, MIS-C is a rare but severe complication seen in children following SARS-CoV-2 infection.

As of October 15, the number of confirmed MIS-C cases in the USA reached 1,097, with 20 related fatalities.

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Oct 19, 2020 • 11:37 am CDT

How Similar are Human Coronaviruses?

A new study published on October 15, 2020, identified the shared biology and potential drug targets among the (3) highly pathogenic human coronavirus strains. They mapped the full interactome of SARS-CoV-1, SARS-CoV-2, and MERS-CoV and investigated the localization of viral proteins across strains, and quantitatively compared the virus-human interactions for each virus.

Using functional genetics and structural analysis of selected host-dependency factors, they propose an integrative and collaborative approach that could and should be used to study these similar human coronaviruses, which are the 2nd leading cause of the common cold, after rhinoviruses.

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Oct 19, 2020 • 10:55 am CDT

Are COVID-19 Immunity Passports Feasible?

Immunity passports could be implemented on the basis of either a laboratory test of an immune response or an immunizing event from infection or vaccination, which would identify individuals less likely to get the COVID-19 disease or transmit the virus when exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, said a report published in The Lancet on October 16, 2020.

These researchers identified important immunological issues for such passports, such as (1) the degree of immunity induced (an immune response might only attenuate disease severity, or might prevent any symptomatic disease and even pathogen carriage, which is necessary for herd immunity) and (2) the duration of immunity.

And, critics of immunity passports point to persisting uncertainties about the immune response to COVID-19, claiming that “COVID-19 immunity is a mystery” and that this uncertainty makes immunity passports unfeasible.

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Oct 19, 2020 • 10:09 am CDT

Slovakia Begins Coronavirus Testing For 5.5 Million Residents

The Slovakia Republic's government adopted a resolution entrusting the Armed Forces with an operation called Joint Responsibility, which will attend to test its entire population of about 5.5 million for COVID-19. Integrated teams led by 8,000 Armed Forces will operate at the sampling points.

'Testing at the national level (for those over 10 years of age) will help to better identify existing outbreaks, provide adequate healthcare for cases with little or no symptoms of COVID-19, and more effectively separate the infected population,' announced the Slovakia government on October 18, 2020.

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Oct 19, 2020 • 9:51 am CDT

Nursing Homes Could See COVID-19 Case Spike

The Washington, D.C. based American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL) released a report showing nursing homes in the USA could see a 3rd spike of new COVID-19 cases due to the community spread among the general population.

Previously, Dr. David Grabowski, Professor of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, stated, “The strongest predictor of whether or not we’ll see cases in [a particular setting] is community spread.”

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Oct 18, 2020 • 9:34 pm CDT

Pharmacies Will Administer COVID-19 Vaccines at Long-Term Care Facilities

As part of the US government's Operation Warp Speed (OWS) effort, long-term care facilities will be able to sign up to have a major U.S. pharmacy company come to their facilities and administer COVID-19 vaccines to residents at no charge. OWS named Walgreens and CVS on October 16, 2020, as nationwide partners in the effort.

Long-term care facilities will be able to sign up to have either CVS or Walgreens come to their locations to administer COVID-19 vaccinations to residents and staff. This OWS program is free of charge to facilities and is opt-in only.

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Oct 18, 2020 • 9:24 pm CDT

Masks Required When Not Eating, Drinking or Skiing

New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced that ski resorts can reopen with 50% indoor capacity and with strict health and safety protocols under state-issued guidance starting November 6, 2020.

Governor Cuomo said in a press release on October 18, 2020: "Beginning next month, Ski resorts will be allowed to reopen with limited indoor capacity, which will allow New Yorkers to have some outdoor activity this winter without having to quarantine when they come back."

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Oct 18, 2020 • 11:31 am CDT

Massachusetts to Distribute Up To 60,000 Coronavirus Vaccines

The Massachusetts Department of Health published a draft version of how the state plans to distribute COVID-19 vaccines to its residents. According to the October 17, 2020 draft, the state expects to receive between 20,000 and 60,000 vaccine doses in the 1st phase.

The state of Massachusetts COVID-19 Vaccination Plan is aligned with the (3) phases of vaccine availability, as well as the vaccine-based scenarios, as described in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention COVID-19 Vaccination Program Interim Playbook.

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Oct 18, 2020 • 7:32 am CDT

5.4% Test Positive for Coronavirus

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported during week #41, there were 2,632,222 specimens were tested for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus for diagnostic purposes and 141,317 (5.4%) were found positive, as of October 10, 2020.

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Oct 18, 2020 • 7:19 am CDT

Japan's Influenza Drug Seeks Approval to Treat COVID-19

Tokyo based FUJIFILM Toyama Chemical Co., Ltd. announced that the company filed an Application for Partial Changes to manufacturing and marketing approval matters of its anti-influenza drug Avigan® Tablet (favipiravir) already approved in Japan. The filing seeks to add an indication relating to COVID-19.

Avigan selectively inhibits RNA polymerase necessary for influenza virus replication. Due to this mechanism of action, it has been expected that Avigan may have an antiviral effect on the novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, as they are RNA viruses of the same type as influenza viruses, stated the company's press release on October 16, 2020.

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