ReutersCureVac and GSK’s second-generation vaccine candidate targeting two recent COVID-19 variants has been shown to be highly effective in preclinical studies on mice, CureVac said, as the biotech firm seeks to catch up with rivals’ development work.
ReutersModerna plans to submit an application to the U.S. health regulator for emergency use authorization (EUA) of the company’s COVID-19 vaccine among kids between the ages of six months to five years by the end of the month, a company spokesperson said.
ReutersCOVID-19 cases and deaths are declining in the Americas, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said on April 20, with infections last week having dropped 2.3 percent and deaths falling 15.2 percent from the prior week. The broad trend comes even as cases have scaled up in North America with an 11.2 percent increase last week, the organization said.
ReutersThe BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron and its sublineage BA.2.12.1 is estimated to make up more than 90 percent of the coronavirus variants in the United States as of April 16, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on April 19.
Moderna Inc. on April 19 said a COVID-19 booster designed to target the Beta variant as well as the original coronavirus generated a better immune response against a number of virus variants including Omicron.
Unvaccinated people infected with the Omicron variant are unlikely to develop immune responses that will protect them against other variants of the coronavirus, a new study suggests. Additionally, the average number of global deaths from COVID-19 were 6 percent higher on weekends compared to weekdays throughout the pandemic, according to statistics reported to the World Health Organization between March 2020 and March 2022.
Although research is being conducted on Long COVID or Long COVID-19, whose symptoms continue for weeks and months after initial infection, there are very few ongoing clinical trials on treatments. Anecdotally, there has been what appears to be a successful treatment for Long Covid using Pfizer’s antiviral regimen Paxlovid.
ReutersA second Global COVID-19 Summit will be held virtually during May for countries to discuss efforts to end the pandemic and prepare for future health threats, according to a joint statement on April 18.
ReutersCOVID-19 vaccine candidates developed by a Sinopharm subsidiary and Sinovac Biotech to target the Omicron variant were approved for clinical trials in Hong Kong, the companies said on April 16.
A fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech provided significant added protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death for at least a month in older individuals, according to a study from Israel conducted when the Omicron variant was dominant. Additionally, new findings suggest patients with COVID-19 may have an increased risk of rare vision-threatening blood clots in the eye for months afterward.
