Roche’s cobas SARS-CoV-2 Test received U.S. authorization for testing individuals without symptoms or reasons to suspect a Covid-19 infection, the Swiss drugmaker said on May 18.
New mutations, or variants, of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19 are continuing to be discovered. Health officials in Florida cited a new mutation of the Brazilian strain (P.1) that they are calling P2 or P.1.1.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published updated guidance communicating to the public that the coronavirus disease 2019 is an airborne threat, explicitly stating that transmission and subsequent infection with the novel coronavirus can occur via inhalation of very fine respiratory droplets as well as aerosolized particles.
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.
A new study by researchers at the University College London (UCL) published in Lancet Infectious Diseases finds that although the U.K. variant of SARS-CoV-2 known as B.1.1.7 is more transmissible than the wild-type, original Wuhan strain, it is likely not more deadly.
Shares of Inovio climbed in trading after the company announced its DNA vaccine candidate for Covid-19 induced a robust T-cell response against multiple variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
The first study to directly compare immune reactions between Pfizer’s and AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccines found strong and broadly similar antibody responses in over-80-year-olds after a first dose of either shot, scientists said on April 14.
A joint China-World Health Organization (WHO) study into Covid-19 provided no credible answers about how the pandemic began, and more rigorous investigations are required – with or without Beijing’s involvement, a group of international scientists and researchers said on April 7.
Emergent BioSolutions’ Phase III trial of SARS-CoV-2 Immune Globulin Intravenous (Human) (COVID-HIG) to treat hospitalized patients with COVID-19 showed that the addition of the treatment to Gilead Sciences’ remdesivir did not provide clinical benefit compared to standard of care plus placebo in hospitalized adult COVID-19 patients with symptoms for less than 12 days.
A joint WHO-China study on the origins of Covid-19 says the virus was probably transmitted from bats to humans through another animal, and that a lab leak was “extremely unlikely” as a cause, the Associated Press reported on March 29.
