Category: Canada
New #coronavirus variant #B1525 with #E484K, #Q677H, #F888L and a similar deletions to #B117
International lineage with variants of biological significance E484K, Q677H, F888L and a similar suite of deletions to B.1.1.7.
Countries reported 2
Countries with sequences 10
Sequence count 102
Countries: Denmark 35, United Kingdom 32, Nigeria 12, United States of America 7, France 5, Ghana 4, Australia 2, Canada 2, Jordan 2, Spain 1
Photo by Jakayla Toney on Unsplash
#Quebec researchers say they have found an effective drug to fight #COVID19 – #colchicine
A team of researchers from the Montreal Heart Institute believe they have found an effective weapon against COVID-19: Colchicine, an oral tablet already known and used for other diseases.
The ColCorona study involved 4,159 patients whose diagnosis of COVID-19 had been confirmed by a nasopharyngeal test (PCR).
Analysis of the study found that colchicine resulted in reductions in hospitalizations by 25 per cent, the need for mechanical ventilation by 50 per cent, and deaths by 44 per cent.
1,000 mink culled at Canada farm after 3 test positive for #coronavirus
Mink euthanized for their fur on B.C. farm where three animals tested positive for COVID-19
Mink at a Fraser Valley farm that was the site of a COVID-19 outbreak in December were recently euthanized and frozen, and will be pelted for their fur in the future.
Although the B.C. government didn’t order the farm to cull its animals, the operator “decided to pelt out completely” after the virus was discovered in three dead mink, said Alan Herscovici, a spokesman for the Canada Mink Breeders Association. The farm had about 1,000 mink.
Photo by Jo-Anne McArthur on Unsplash
60 million confirmed #coronavirus infections globally, and the rate is still increasing
There have now been more than 60,000,000 confirmed coronavirus infections globally and the infection rate is still increasing.
Europe is main source of #SarsCov2. Travel restrictions in #UK and Europe “too few” and “too late”
It is not China but Europe the area of the world identified as the main source of spread of Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
To say this is a study on the viral genome that was carried out by the Universities of Huddersfield, in the United Kingdom, and of the Minho, in Portugal, and which was published in the scientific journal Microorganisms. Work focused on the 27,000 Sars-Cov-2 viral genomes identified around the world since the start of the pandemic.
Thanks to this analysis, the researchers noted that travel restrictions in Great Britain and the rest of Europe seem to have been “too few” and made “too late” and that the actual spread to America and other parts of the planet are occurred largely through Europe and not from China, where the virus originated.
“It seems likely – the scholars explain – that the travel bans established throughout the world in the second half of March have helped to decrease the number of intercontinental trade, particularly from mainland China, but were less effective between Europe and North America where trade in both directions was visible until April, long after the bans were imposed. ”
Photo by Aaron Barnaby on Unsplash
Major COVID-19 outbreak at an Olymel meat processing facility in the Beauce region of Canada
Workers at an Olymel meat-packing plant in the Beauce region are being tested for COVID-19, after a weekend outbreak infected dozens of employees.
The union representing the facility’s 1,200 employees said 80 people have tested positive so far.
“People are still working, but they’re worried. There are some who are still waiting for test results,” said Martin Maurice, president of the Syndicat des travailleurs d’Olymel Vallée-Jonction.
A 65-year-old worker, who tested positive for COVID-19, died on Tuesday
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/covid-19-beauce-olymel-1.5771347
Photo by Jo-Anne McArthur on Unsplash