Category: Asia
Asian Coronavirus News
India: Sars-CoV-2 remains active in a dead infected person for up to nine days
“Coronavirus, according to scientific evidence that has emerged so far, can survive on a dead body, in bodily fluids, secretions and moist cells of the dead body for up to nine days.” More...
Hong Kong: Hamsters test positive for Delta variant
Hong Kong has found evidence of possible animal-to-human coronavirus transmission at a pet shop where a worker was confirmed as the first untraceable Delta infection in three months, after multiple hamsters tested positive. More...
Israel: Fourth dose of vaccine gives limited protection against Omicron infection
Preliminary results from the study conducted at Sheba Medical Center showed that after receiving the fourth shot, participants developed higher coronavirus antibody levels, but they were only partly effective in preventing Omicron infections. More...
Long COVID patients lack naive T and B cells
Nature article: “Patients with long COVID had highly activated innate immune cells, lacked naive T and B cells and showed elevated expression of type I IFN (IFN-β) and type III IFN (IFN-λ1) that remained persistently high at 8 months after infection”
“T cell activation (indicated by CD38 and HLA-DR), T cell exhaustion and increases in B cell plasmablasts occur during severe COVID-19”
Full Nature article: Immunological dysfunction persists for 8 months following initial mild-to-moderate SARS-CoV-2 infection
More...Dear people, please understand: the crux of these assumptions lie on prior t cell immunity, and the virus is one step ahead in this regard; it kills cd8+ t cells.
EMA: Immune system could be overloaded by booster vaccinations
The European Medicines Agency warned this week that repeated booster shots are not a sustainable long-term plan. More...
Long COVID in 2009: Mental Morbidities and Chronic Fatigue in SARS Survivors
From 2009, Long COVID in SARS survivors: Over 40% of the respondents had active psychiatric illnesses, 40.3% reported a chronic fatigue problem, and 27.1% met the modified 1994 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome. More...
Israel: Vaccine passport “has run its course and is no longer relevant”
Israel must rethink its COVID-19 response strategy, a senior health expert said on Thursday, as infections explode nationwide ushered in by the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
India: Man caught trying to get a 12th dose of Covid vaccine
An 84-year-old man from Bihar in India has claimed to have been inoculated with 11 doses of Covid-19 vaccines.
Israel: Effects of 4th Covid booster dose are good, but not good enough
An Israeli health expert has said that although officials are satisfied with the results reported about the effects of the fourth coronavirus shot, they expected more from the second booster. More...
Global case fatality rate drops to its lowest ever level during the pandemic
Finally, some good news on the Covid front. Whilst the world battles its way through a blizzard of Omicron, the lower death rate for the variant has sent the global case fatality rate tumbling to just 1.86%, the lowest level since the beginning of the pandemic. More...