Category: Asia
Asian Coronavirus News
UK: Matt Hancock says closing UK borders against coronavirus are ‘Captain Hindsight’ decisions
From a Coronaheadsup post, 16th March 2020: “why are our borders STILL open? More...
Canada CDC: ‘Researchers are monitoring for … B.1.617.4’
British Columbia CDC: “Researchers are monitoring for specific sublineages of this variant, including B.1.617.1, 1.617.2, B.1.617.3 and B.1.617.4” (is this a typo?) More...
India: Covaxin and Covishield vaccines invoke 50% fewer antibodies against B.1.617 coronavirus variant
Scientists at the Indian National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune, have found that both Covaxin and Covishield produce half as many antibodies against the B.1.617 variant of the novel coronavirus as against the ‘original’ B.1 variant. More...
UK: Chris Whitty – B.1.617.2 is more transmissible than B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant
Chris Whitty: at 11.15 minutes, “..there is now confidence, and SAGE has looked at this data, as have various modelling groups, that this variant (B.1.617.2) is more transmissible than B.1.1.7.” More...
India: Pangolin rescued from coronavirus-positive man tests positive for Covid-19
A pangolin that was recovered from a COVID-positive man has tested positive for the virus, following which it would be kept in isolation. More...
India: Jaipur Zoo lion tests positive for coronavirus. A white tiger, a panther, and another lion also suspected to be infected
An Asiatic lion has tested positive for Covid in Jaipur’s Nahargarh Biological Park. More...
WHO: Newly designated VOC within lineage B.1.617 – update on Delta coronavirus variant
In consultation with the WHO SARS-CoV-2 Virus Evolution Working Group, WHO has determined that viruses within the lineage B.1.617 have been characterized as a VOC. More...
A Bayesian analysis concludes beyond a reasonable doubt that SARS-CoV-2 is not a natural zoonosis but instead is laboratory derived
“Based on this evidence, [bats] would have been hibernating at the time of the first human outbreak in the fall of 2019. More...
UK: 1600 cases of Delta variant B.1.617.2 in Britain, now at >8% of total
According to the Covid-19 genomics UK consortium database, in sequences up to 11th May, there have been 1,604 instances of B.1.617.2, making it the second most common variant in the UK. More...