Coronavirus Breaking News

The City of New York announced that 16,982 @NYCSchool staff had been tested and only 0.32% were found positive for COVID-19, as of September 15, 2020.

And recently, NYC's Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the nation’s largest school district, serving 1.1 million students in over 1,800 schools, will phase students back into classrooms on a rolling basis during late September 2020, reported ABC7.

The U.S. CDC published an Early Release letter for December 2020, authored by researchers tested 50 cats from coronavirus disease households or close contacts in Hong Kong, China, for SARS-CoV-2 RNA in respiratory and fecal samples. They found 6 cases of apparent human-to-feline transmission involving healthy cats. And virus genomes sequenced from 1 cat and its owner were identical.

Although feline-to-human transmission is theoretically possible, the University of Hong Kong researchers did not find any evidence of this transmission. These findings informed the current precautionary strategy in Hong Kong to quarantine mammalian pets in a holding facility.

Hawai'i Governor David Ige announced on September 16, 2020, a new pre-travel testing program for COVID-19, which will start October 15th. The pre-travel testing enables travelers to avoid a mandatory 14-day quarantine if they are tested no earlier than 72 hours before their flight arrives in Hawai'i with an FDA-approved nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT), performed using a nasal swab, and can show proof of negative test results from a CLIA certified laboratory.

And arriving visitors will have their temperatures checked upon arrival and must fill out a travel and health form.

However, airline passengers unable to provide proof of an approved negative test will be required to go into quarantine for 14-days or until they can provide proof of negative test results.

From a ranking perspective, new study by WalletHub ranks Hawai'i as the state with the most COVID-19 restrictions in the USA.

A new report issued to the US Congress on September 16, 2020, announced details a strategy to achieve the principal purpose and objective of Operation Warp Speed (OWS) ensuring that every American who wants to receive a COVID-19 vaccine can receive one for free.

OWS intends to deliver safe and effective SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus protective vaccines to the American people beginning in January 2021.

And, this new U.S. CDC document serves as an interim playbook for state, territorial, including the US-affiliated Pacific Islands of American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau, and local public health programs and their partners on how to plan and operationalize a vaccination response to COVID-19 within their jurisdictions.

Indiana based Eli Lilly announced on September 16, 2020, proof of concept data from an interim analysis of the BLAZE-1 clinical trial, showing a reduced rate of hospitalization for patients treated with LY-CoV555. The Phase 2 study evaluated LY-CoV555, a SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibody, for the treatment of symptomatic COVID-19 in the outpatient setting. The trial enrolled mild-to-moderate recently diagnosed COVID-19 patients across four groups (placebo, 700 mg, 2800 mg, and 7000 mg).

"These interim data from the BLAZE-1 trial suggest that LY-CoV555, an antibody specifically directed against SARS-CoV-2, has a direct antiviral effect and may reduce COVID-related hospitalizations," stated Daniel Skovronsky, M.D., Ph.D., Lilly's chief scientific officer and president of Lilly Research Laboratories, in a press release.

"The results reinforce our conviction that neutralizing antibodies can help in the fight against COVID-19."

By the end of September, thousands of rapid-response antigen tests produced by Quidel's innovative system will be delivered to Pac-12 athletic departments as proof football games can return for the Fall 2020 season, reported the Mercury News on September 15, 2020. During early August, the Pac-12 Conference leaders postponed the season in response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic on the USA's west coast.

However, one Pac-12 school began using Quidel's tests last spring, and the results may score a victory for college football.

Arizona has already conducted about 25,000 Quidel Sofia SARS tests on students, athletes, staff members, and patients. David Harris, who oversees the testing program, told the Hotline the results have been impressive. The coronavirus tests were up to 98% accurate in sensitivity (finding the antigens) and 100% accurate in specificity (finding the right antigens).

But the importance of the Quidel antigen test for public health, he explained, is obvious: “It provides feedback on a large group of people rapidly.... in just 15 minutes."

The next 'play' for the Pac-12 is to convince health officials in Oregon and California to lift their restrictions. At that point, the Pac-12 university presidents could vote on letting the 'teams take the field.'

Germany-based BioNTech SE announced on September 15, 2020, that it will receive a grant of up to 375 million Euro (US$444 million) from an initiative by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research to support the accelerated development of the Company’s mRNA vaccine program BNT162, that is being co-developed with its partners Pfizer Inc. and Fosun Pharma. Pfizer will continue to independently fund its share of development costs for BNT162, without the use of this or other government funding.

The BNT162 vaccine program is one of 3 programs supported by the German government, which will provide a total of up to 750 million Euro to its funding recipients.

The goal of the (8) milestone-based grant initiative is the expansion of vaccine development and manufacturing capabilities in Germany, as well as the expansion of the number of participants in late-stage clinical trials. Patient recruitment has commenced on 3 continents and over 28,000 participants have already been enrolled worldwide with study sites in the USA, Brazil, Argentina, and Europe.