Covid-19 News & Updates

[PeteC]

Bloomberg's World Wide Summary

https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/1863934

[HHTel]

Yes, I only looked at the pictures, but I too was impressed.

That link has now been deleted 'by the author'. I wonder why!

[HHTel]

Currently 21 deaths outside of China. A relatively big jump over the last day or so. Thailand now ranks at No. 8 having been overtaken by Italy.
I must admit, I'm quite surprised that no further cases have been found here.
20 out of the 35 cases have since recovered.

[deepee]

Yes, I only looked at the pictures, but I too was impressed.

That link has now been deleted 'by the author'. I wonder why!

oops, I must have upset somebody somewhere in posting that link, tried going to the link I got that link from and my router repeatedly gets shut down!!

[HHTel]

Start of another day in the 'End of the World' saga. Figures updated at 08:31 Thai time today:

China has altered it's definition of cases and now include 'clinically diagnosed cases'

79,163 cases( up 392)

Deaths: 2,471 (up 9)

23,596 recovered. (up 430)

Currently infected: 53,096 (down 47)
Mild cases: 41,527 (78% of currently infected)
Serious or critical: 11,569 (22% of currently infected)

Recovered or died: 26,067 (up 439)
Recovered/discharged: 26,067 (91% of the total with outcome)
Died: 2,471 (9% of cases with an outcome) Keep an eye on this percentage.

Currently deaths outside of China is 27.
Thailand has 35 cases with 21 recovered and 2 critical. 14 currently infected.


72,340 'flu deaths 2020

[Big Boy]

I guess there is some comfort that 2 out of the last 3 days has shown 'death' figures as single digits. A long way to go yet though.

[buksida]

Coronavirus up to 20 times more likely than Sars to bind to human cells, study suggests
The deadly new coronavirus is up to 20 times more likely to bind to human cell receptors and cause infection than severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars), a new study by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin has found.

The novel coronavirus and Sars share the same functional host-cell receptor, called angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2).

The report, published on the website bioRxiv on Saturday, said the new coronavirus had around 10 to 20-fold higher affinity – the degree to which a substance tends to combine with another – for human ACE2 compared with Sars.

But the researchers added that further studies were needed to explore the human host-cell receptor’s role in helping the new virus to spread from person to person.

Full story: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society ... ells-study


Note: again posted to provide balance to all the downplaying.

[PeteC]

With their very long border with China, North Korea may be in full epidemic and the outside world wouldn't know about it.

Keep your eyes open though when reading News as something will be mentioned sooner or later.

Coronavirus: North Korea quarantines foreigners

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-51609360

[hhinner]

I wonder how many people in Thailand are going to die from the poisonous air in comparison to Covid-19, although the deaths due to pollution will take longer and be easier to hide. And let's not forget the daily road carnage. I expect the P's above us reckon the virus is easier for them to show some action (albeit pretty pathetic) as well as being a useful diversion.

[Bluesky]

Coronavirus COVID-19 vaccine days away from animal testing, Queensland researchers believe
By Baz Ruddick
Posted Sat at 1:27pm


Researchers at the University of Queensland (UQ) have said they are just days away from testing a new vaccine for coronavirus, or COVID-19, on animals.

Paul Young, head of the university's School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences, said a team of 20 UQ scientists had been working around the clock to speed up the vaccine building process since the outbreak of the virus.

Researchers from UQ were funded by an international organisation called the Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI) to use new rapid medical development technology to help create a vaccine for the new virus strain.
this followed the breakthrough by Australian scientists in developing a lab-grown version of the disease.

The UQ team is part of a race by labs worldwide to develop a vaccine.
"It started back when China released the sequence back in late January. That gave us the viral genome we needed to take and express," Dr Young said.

"A key milestone is actually generating the vaccine prior to putting it into animal studies.
"We will be going into our first animal studies at the University of Queensland this week, to be followed not long after [by] studies at the Australian Animal Health laboratories at the CSIRO in Geelong."

Dr Young said while the UQ work was groundbreaking, it was hard to say if it was the world's first vaccine developed for coronavirus.
He said there are multiple versions of vaccines and a variety of approaches that can all be as effective as each other.
The best thing that can happen is happening now — that is, there is a wide number of groups working toward vaccine approaches, and quite frankly the first one that gets there it will be great," Dr Young said.

"It is not a race between vaccine producers, it is a race against this particular virus.

"It is a new territory for vaccine design. Vaccines take many years to develop from concept to licence and use in the community.

"What we are aiming for is somewhere between 12 and 18 months, which is remarkably quick."

Dr Young said the UQ team had developed 100 different versions of a protein to work out which would be most effective against the virus.

He said they now planned to conduct pre-clinical trials (including animal testing) and hoped to undertake human trials by the middle of the year.

"Those trials are testing that the vaccine actually induces the immune response we are expecting to start manufacturing in levels that are high enough and in a pure enough state such that we can put them into humans, " he said.
Dr Young said the team was already working on a rapid response to potential global disease outbreaks.

After completing animal studies, he said they would send the vaccine to the CSIRO for further testing.

"It has been significantly more challenging than we thought," he said.



https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-22/ ... s/11991456

[PeteC]

Bloomberg Worldwide Update

https://www.bangkokpost.com/world/1864644

[nil]

The good news is that it officially is not a pandemic.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/wo ... y-12465146

[Dannie Boy]

The good news is that it officially is not a pandemic.

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/wo ... y-12465146

I guess it depends on what news reports you look at - this is from BBC News

Coronavirus: Rapid spread raises fears of global pandemic

Fears are growing that the coronavirus outbreak could reach pandemic scale as more cases emerge around the world.
Most infections are in China but other nations like South Korea, Italy and Iran are battling the virus, which causes respiratory disease Covid-19.
A pandemic is when an infectious disease spreads easily from person to person in many parts of the world.
About 77,000 people in China, where the virus emerged last year, have been infected and nearly 2,600 have died.
More than 1,200 cases have been confirmed in 26 other countries and there have been more than 20 deaths. Italy reported two more deaths on Monday, raising the total there to five.

[nil]

Not according to the WHO

[handdrummer]

Not according to the WHO

The same people who said not to worry, no problem.