Category: Testing
Mexico: Patient coinfected with MU and Delta Covid variants at the same time
The governor of the state of Hidalgo, Mexico, reported that the Ministry of Health has detected the presence of COVID-19 Delta and Mu variants in the same patient. The state president assured that it is an unprecedented event in Mexico, since the two variants had never been detected in the same case of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
The finding was confirmed by the Institute for Epidemiological Diagnosis and Reference (INDRE) of the federal Ministry of Health, as well as by a third laboratory.
La secretaría de @Salud_Hidalgo ha detectado la presencia de las cepas Delta y Mu en el estado. Derivado de diferentes análisis a través del #INDRE de @SSalud_mx y un tercer laboratorio se detectaron ambas variantes en 1 mismo paciente, hecho inédito hasta el momento en México.
— Omar Fayad (@omarfayad) October 16, 2021
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
BMJ: One in seven children may still have Long Covid symptoms 15 weeks after infection
Up to one in seven (14%) children and young people who caught SARS-CoV-2 may have symptoms linked to the virus 15 weeks later, suggest preliminary findings from the world’s largest study on long Covid in children, led by UCL and Public Health England researchers.
For the study, published on the preprint site Research Square and funded by the UK’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), researchers surveyed 3,065 11- to 17-year-olds in England who had positive results in a PCR test between January and March as well as a matched control group of 3,739 11- to 17-year-olds who tested negative over the same period.
They found that, when surveyed at an average of 15 weeks after their test, 14% more young people in the test positive group had three or more symptoms of ill health, including unusual tiredness and headaches, than those in the test negative group, while 7% (one in 14) more had five or more symptoms.
The researchers said the data suggested that, over seven months between last September and March, at least 4,000 and possibly 32,000 teenagers of the total population of 11- to 17-year-olds who tested positive in England may have had multiple (three or more) symptoms tied to Covid-19 infection after 15 weeks.
Preprint: Long COVID – the physical and mental health of children and non-hospitalised young people 3 months after SARS-CoV-2 infection; a national matched cohort study (The CLoCk) Study.
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Preprint: Increases in COVID-19 are unrelated to levels of vaccination across 68 countries and 2947 counties in the United States
“At the country-level, there appears to be no discernable relationship between percentage of population fully vaccinated and new COVID-19 cases in the last 7 days. In fact, the trend line suggests a marginally positive association such that countries with higher percentage of population fully vaccinated have higher COVID-19 cases per 1 million people.
Notably, Israel with over 60% of their population fully vaccinated had the highest COVID-19 cases per 1 million people in the last 7 days. The lack of a meaningful association between percentage population fully vaccinated and new COVID-19 cases is further exemplified, for instance, by comparison of Iceland and Portugal. Both countries have over 75% of their population fully vaccinated and have more COVID-19 cases per 1 million people than countries such as Vietnam and South Africa that have around 10% of their population fully vaccinated.”
Preprint: Increases in COVID-19 are unrelated to levels of vaccination across 68 countries and 2947 counties in the United States
Image by Frauke Riether from Pixabay
Winter is here. Three European nations see their highest ever Covid case rates
Three European nations, Russia, Latvia and Romania, have recorded their highest ever Covid case rates since the pandemic began, and at least eight European nations are currently seeing their highest Covid case rates for six months.
It looks like Great Britain may see its highest ever figure for coronavirus cases quite soon, and Europe is looking like it may be the epicentre of the next winter wave.
Two European nations, Latvia and Romania, are seeing their highest ever case rates of the entire pandemic:
Update 18th October 2021: Russia has just recorded its highest ever figure for Covid infections
Eight European nations are seeing their highest case rates for six months. They are Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Romania, Armenia, Moldova, and Croatia.
The UK looks like it might soon break its all-time high record for Covid cases, set last January 2021, despite 80% of its population being vaccinated.
Update:
UK ZOE app reports the highest UK Covid daily case rate ever recorded
Winter is here.
Image by Germans Aļeņins from Pixabay
Preprint: Breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infections in 620,000 U.S. Veterans – protection decreased from 92% to 54%
We compared SARS CoV-2 infection by vaccination status from February 1, 2021 to August 13, 2021 in the Veterans Health Administration, covering 2.7% of the U.S. population. Vaccine protection declined by mid-August 2021, decreasing from 91.9% in March to 53.9%. Declines were greatest for the Janssen vaccine followed by PfizerBioNTech and Moderna. Patterns of breakthrough infection over time were consistent by age, despite rolling vaccine eligibility, implicating the Delta variant as the primary determinant of infection.
Preprint: Breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infections in 620,000 U.S. Veterans, February 1, 2021 to August 13, 2021
UK ONS: one in sixty people infected with Covid, worst infection rate since January 2021
The prevalence of COVID-19 infections in England increased to around 1 in 60 people in the week ending Oct 9 2021, Britain’s Office for National Statistics said on Friday, reaching its highest level since January 2021. The ONS said that prevalence of infections had risen for its third straight week, having been at 1 in 70 people in the previous week.
The UK government Covid dashboard is showing all red:
The UK ZOE Covid app confirms that the infection figures are the highest since January – just as the vaccines were starting to be rolled out.
The UK government Covid dashboard shows that nearly 80% of the eligible population have been fully vaccinated:
UK infections in children have spiralled out of control following the removal of all mitigations in schools. It’s a deliberate and disastrous policy of mass infection of kids that will blight an entire future generation.
Today marks a milestone of sorts: the number of children under 14 who've tested positive for Covid in England just passed one million (1,003,787 to be precise). 🧵 pic.twitter.com/C58QwpvJrk
— Colin Davis (@ProfColinDavis) October 15, 2021
Latest ONS infection survey has just been released.
Cases continuing to go up in Wales & England. 1 in 60 now infected in England.*8%* of secondary school age and *3%* of primary school age kids are infected.
When are we going to say *enough is enough* and protect kids? pic.twitter.com/FDqZ1D3k6w
— Prof. Christina Pagel (@chrischirp) October 15, 2021
And finally, a Twitter thread that might go some way towards explaining these extraordinary UK numbers:
Let's bust some myths 🧵
1. Herd immunity is coming soon
This is Iran. There are 3 shades of green on this map. Starting at medium green, each person living in this province has been infected on average more than once. https://t.co/5gy485mZRB pic.twitter.com/A2LUpFjQY3
— Nancy Delagrave – COVID-STOP (@RougeMatisse) October 15, 2021
Based on preprint: Detailed reconstruction of the Iranian COVID-19 epidemic reveals high attack rates of SARS-CoV-2 in several provinces
Scotland: 78% of Covid deaths, 64% of hospitalizations and 50% of new cases are fully vaccinated
The Covid-19 situation in Scotland seems to have deteriorated alarmingly since we last checked. For the most recent period reported, 78% of Covid-19 deaths were fully vaccinated, 64% of hospitalizations were fully vaccinated and 50% of new infections were fully vaccinated.
The information below comed from Public Health Scotland, and can be downloaded here. The key charts from the report are reproduced below. We have excluded the partially vaccinated from the results for clarity.
Covid-19 deaths in Scotland – 78% are fully vaccinated:
Covid-19 hospitalizations in Scotland – 64% are fully vaccinated:
New Covid-19 cases in Scotland – 50% are fully vaccinated:
Underlying data from Public Health Scotland
Deaths:
Hospitalizations:
Cases:
Israel: Hospital acquired infections despite full PPE, N-95 mask, face shield, gown and gloves
We have investigated a nosocomial COVID-19 outbreak involving the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant among a highly vaccinated population. The attack rate among exposed individuals reached 23.3% in patients and 10.3% in staff, with 96.2% vaccination rate among exposed individuals. Moreover, several transmissions probably occurred between two individuals both wearing surgical masks, and in one instance using full PPE, including N-95 mask, face shield, gown and gloves.
Although reports of breakthrough infections are increasing, this communication emphasises several points. It challenges the assumption that high universal vaccination rates will lead to herd immunity and prevent COVID-19 outbreaks. This was probably true for the wild-type SARS-CoV-2 virus, but in the outbreak described here, 96.2% of the exposed population was vaccinated. Infection advanced rapidly (many cases became symptomatic within 2 days of exposure), and viral load was high.
Eurosurveillance.org report: Nosocomial outbreak caused by the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant in a highly vaccinated population, Israel, July 2021
Japan: Delta sub-lineage AY.29 found in 88% of samples
In the present study, we report a new sub-lineage of the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant called AY.29, which has C5239T and T5514C mutations. We investigated the monthly trend of AY.29 in Japan within 11,954 Delta variants downloaded on September 3, 2021. Among the total Japanese Delta variants, the AY.29 sub-lineage accounted for 88.4%. In terms of monthly changes, the sequences became predominant in June, and accounted for 93.2% and 94.2% of the reported sequences in July and August, respectively.
Preprint: Genomic Surveillance in Japan of AY.29 – A New Sub-lineage of SARS-CoV-2 Delta Variant with C5239T and T5514C Mutations
Image by abdulla binmassam from Pixabay
New York: 66,200 vaccine breakthrough cases, 5,604 hospitalizations
New York’s overall vaccine breakthrough case count had reached about 66,200, including 5,604 hospitalizations, newly reported state numbers show.
Earlier in the year, between early May and July 25, 2021, the number of COVID-19 infections among fully vaccinated New Yorkers totalled 9,675, with 1,271 hospitalizations.
Image by Pete Linforth from Pixabay
Chile: Delta variant doubles to 60% in just two weeks, outcompetes Gamma, Lambda, MU
The Delta variant, which was first detected in Chile just two months ago, is now found in 61% of all genome samples. The MU variant, which was rising rapidly until just two weeks ago, appears to have been halted by the surge of Delta cases.
“Delta, since it was detected as a community circulation in the week of July 26, began its participation in the sequencing with 3% of the total positive samples analyzed. The following week it already occupied 6%, then 10% and 22% for EW 33. Since then, it has risen to 29% of the total in epidemiological week (EW) 34 (last August) when 373 samples were sequenced ; 40% in EW 35 with a total analysis of 473 and 61% in EW 36 but with only 71 samples sequenced.
For these same weeks, the Gamma variant of the virus, which for months dominated the infections, has continued to decline. For EW 34, 31% of the total samples were registered; 26% in EW 35 and barely 18% in EW 36.
The Mu variant detected for the first time in Colombia, like Delta, is also on the rise. From 18% in week 33, it went to 30 and 32% in the weeks that follow; while the Andean variant or Lambda continues to decline with 16% in SE, 8% in SE 34 and 2% in SE 35. For EW 36, it does not register presence, although there are still samples to be entered in that week.”
Chile has 77% of its population fully vaccinated:
Most common COVID-19 symptoms if you’re fully vaccinated or unvaccinated
Currently, the most common COVID-19 symptoms if you’re fully vaccinated are:
Runny nose
Headache
Sneezing
Sore throat
Loss of smell (anosmia)
Most common COVID-19 symptoms if you’re unvaccinated:
Headache
Runny Nose
Sore Throat
Fever
Persistent cough
Loss of smell (anosmia) comes further down the list for unvaccinated people, but it’s still an important predictor of having COVID-19 rather than a regular cold.
Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay
China continues with its Zero-Covid policy
Public health observers are confident that China’s “zero tolerance” COVID-19 policy will safeguard the country to withstand epidemic flare-ups, although the outbreak in East China’s Fujian Province is still intense and Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province reported three fresh cases on Tuesday during the national holidays to mark the Mid-Autumn Festival.
China also shut an entire city down today after ONE case of Covid-19 was found:
“Chinese officials shut down the northern city of Harbin after a single patient was hospitalized with Covid-19, adding a second flank to the country’s ongoing delta outbreak during the Mid-Autumn Festival and public holidays.”
Denmark’s SSI recommends changes to syringe injection method for #coronavirus vaccines
Cornell University: 95% Covid vaccinated, 322 infections in one week
Cornell University, which has a population of around 40,000 and a 95% Covid-19 vaccination rate, was declared a “yellow zone” after their first week of classes because 322 people there tested positive for the coronavirus during the opening “surveillance testing.”
During the first week of classes this year, 95% of those tested had both COVID shots. However, last year during the same period, before the rollout of the experimental medical products, five times fewer positive coronavirus cases were recorded.
Image by Yaqub Shabazz from Pixabay