World News

Coronavirus LIVE: WHO experts to revive probe into virus origins; Fiji preparing to welcome tourists after two years

October 14, 2021
Henry








Covid booster shot important to prevent infection, English study finds

ian sample

Scientists are urging eligible people to get Covid booster shots after a large survey in England found evidence of a “successful infection” more than three months after full vaccination.

Researchers at Imperial College London analyzed more than 100,000 swabs from a random sample of the population and found that the unvaccinated people had three to four times higher Covid infection rates than those who received two shots.

But while full vaccination significantly reduced infection rates, from 1.76% to 0.35% in the uninfected at three months after the second dose, the infection rate rose again to 0.55% three to six months after the second shot.

The finding suggests that protection against infection, with or without symptoms, begins to decline several months after full vaccination, although other studies suggest that vaccine protection against hospitalization and death is much stronger. .

“The potential increase of breakthrough infections over time reinforces the need for a booster program,” said Paul Elliott, the React study’s lead and professor in epidemiology and public health medicine at Imperial. “It’s an incentive for people to get a booster dose when it becomes available to them,” said Professor Crystal Donnelly, a statistical epidemiologist on the study. The results came as new Covid cases in the UK rose to 42,776, the highest recorded since the end of July.

Read Science editor Ian Sample’s report here: Covid booster shot important to prevent infection, English study finds








US says it will ship 2.4m vaccine doses

The US government says it will send 2.4m doses of the Covid-19 vaccine to Pakistan today, bringing the total number of doses sent to the country to about 18.3m, more than any other country.

An official told Reuters the latest shipments of the vaccine made by Pfizer/BioNTech are due on Saturday via the Kovax distribution program.

Their data shows that Pakistan has so far given at least 93.6m doses of the vaccine out of a population of 220m.








Good morning from London, this is Martin Bellum taking over from my colleague Samantha Locke here. The UK government minister facing the media this morning is the health secretary Sajid Javido – I will soon have any significant covid lines from his first appearance, he is pushing government plans for an “access package” for GPs.








Hi, I’m Samantha Locke and I’ll let you know about the latest coronavirus updates as they happen.

Here’s a brief rundown of the highlights you might have missed.

Good news for seaside break seekers, Fiji says it is already experiencing a boom in demand announcing this week that it would open quarantine-free travel to visitors from select countries nearly two years after closing their borders due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, a group of 26 experts will be tasked with investigating new pathogens and preventing future pandemics. World Health Organization unveiled a team to Revive the investigation into the origins of Covid-19.

WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said it could be “the last chance to understand the origins of this virus”.

  • Bad NHS App for Covid vaccine status causes travel delay. Passengers have been barred from boarding flights and ferries for foreign travel England’s four-hour outage NHS The app left people unable to access a Covid pass to prove their vaccine status.
  • scientists Global survey found abuse and threats to discuss Covid. Scientists from around the world Received death threats and sexual abuse After talking to the media about Covid-19, a survey by the journal Nature revealed.
  • NS UK 136 deaths and 42,776 new Covid-19 cases were recorded.
  • Oliver DowdenThe Conservative Party president said he was “very sorry” and acknowledged that “we haven’t got everything right” about the handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
  • Russia It has set a record for the number of Covid deaths to run for the second day in a 24-hour period. The official death toll on Wednesday stood at 984, slightly higher than yesterday’s record 973 deaths.
  • one place report good UK government’s management of outbreak found one of the worst public health failures in British history.
  • After 19 months of travel ban, we announced that it would Reopening their land borders with Canada and Mexico for non-essential travel. It is a major relief to families who have been separated since the start of the pandemic and comes after months of pressure on the US by several countries to ease restrictions.

.

Leave a Reply