Covid-19 has caused 6.9 million deaths globally, more than double what official numbers show, according to an analysis by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington School of Medicine. IHME found that Covid-19 deaths are significantly underreported in almost every country.
An experimental monoclonal antibody treatment for Covid-19 being developed by Eli Lilly and Co. and AbCellera Biologics Inc. can “potently” neutralize numerous coronavirus variants, including those first identified in the UK, Brazil, South Africa, California and New York, scientists found in test tube experiments. According to another study, some Covid-19 survivors infected early in the pandemic still have detectable antibodies against the virus a year later.
Brazil’s richest and most populous state, Sao Paulo, warned its ability to care for seriously ill Covid-19 patients was on the verge of collapse as it ran perilously low on key drugs, according to a letter to the federal government seen by the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper.
Confusion and complacency in addressing Covid-19 means the pandemic is a long way from over, but it can be brought under control in months with proven public health measures, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on April 12.
Brazil on April 8 set a daily record of 4,249 Covid-19 deaths, with overwhelmed hospitals running low on supplies and the Senate about to open an investigation into the response of the government of President Jair Bolsonaro, who has played down the pandemic from the start.
Coronavirus-related deaths worldwide crossed 3 million on April 6, according to a Reuters tally, as the latest global resurgence of Covid-19 infections is challenging vaccination efforts across the globe.
Topline results from an investigator-initiated trial in Brazil show that treatment with Kintor Pharmaceutical’s proxalutamide cut mortality risk by 92 percent and significantly shortened the median length of hospital stay by nine days compared with standard of care in hospitalized patients with coronavirus disease 2019.
New Covid-19 cases continue to decline in North America, but in Latin America infections are still rising, particularly in Brazil where a resurgence has caused record daily deaths, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) warned on March 10.
The Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE was able to neutralize a new variant of the coronavirus spreading rapidly in Brazil, according to a laboratory study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on March 8.
Preliminary data from a study conducted at the University of Oxford indicates that the Covid-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca is effective against the Brazilian variant P1, a source with knowledge of the study told Reuters on March 5.
