The next Covid pandemic could be prevented by using a gene drive to preemptively edit the genome of bats to prevent them from becoming hosts for coronaviruses, according to a proposal by scientists from Israel’s Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzelia and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The Delta variant is already the dominant strain of Covid-19 in the United States, according to data modeling done by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Britain said on July 7 the country would provide genomic sequencing support to Brazil, Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria and Pakistan to help identify, assess and track new variants of the novel coronavirus.

The highly transmissible Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, first identified in India, has become the most prevalent variant among new Covid-19 cases in the United States, according to California-based genomics company Helix.

Genetic sequences from more than 200 virus samples of early Covid-19 cases mysteriously disappeared from an online scientific database. A researcher in Seattle reported the recovery of 13 of those original sequences.

U.S. scientists are expanding a government-funded study that aims to directly answer the question of whether Moderna Inc.’s Covid-19 vaccine curbs the spread of SARS-CoV-2.

A senior Chinese epidemiologist said the United States should be the priority in the next phase of investigations into the origin of Covid-19 after a study showed the disease could have been circulating there as early as December 2019, state media said on June 17.

At least seven people in five U.S. states were infected with the novel coronavirus weeks before those states reported their first cases, a new government study showed.

A study out of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that months after recovering from mild Covid-19, patients maintained antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Researchers believe that the specific cells that produce the antibodies should persist for a lifetime.

Antiviral pills against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the novel coronavirus responsible for coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), are showing promise in new clinical trials.