Category: Transmission
Nepal: rise in coronavirus cases has similar trajectory to India driven by B117 and B1617
Authorities in Nepal are grappling to contain the rapid rise of COVID-19 cases with experts fearing that thousands of people in the Himalayan state have caught the more infectious mutant strains emerging out of India. More...
Cyprus: two-week lockdown imposed to try and reverse a spike in coronavirus infections
A two-week coronavirus lockdown has been introduced in Cyprus from 26th March 2021. More...
USA: large covid-19 outbreak in Kentucky with R.1 coronavirus lineage variant after vaccine breakthrough with Pfizer
The Kentucky Department for Public Health and a local health department investigated a COVID-19 outbreak in a skilled nursing facility that occurred after all residents and health care personnel had been offered vaccination. More...
MIT: 6ft social distancing rule doesn’t adequately address airborne transmission of coronavirus in indoor spaces
“There is now overwhelming evidence that indoor airborne transmission associated with relatively small, micron-scale aerosol droplets plays a dominant role in the spread of COVID-19 … Above all, our study makes clear the inadequacy of the Six-Foot Rule in mitigating indoor airborne disease transmission, and offers a rational, physically informed alternative for managing life in the time of COVID-19. More...
France: 18 new infections reported of the 19B/501Y Henri Mondor coronavirus variant
The 19B / 501Y Henri Mondor variant (lineage A.27) has been detected in France since January 2021 infrequently but overall stable, with fluctuations from one week to the next: it represented 1% of sequences interpretable in the Flash # 6 survey (03/30/2021) versus 0.2% in the Flash # 5 survey (03/16/2021). More...
France: Breton variant B.1.616 – 37 cases & 16 deaths with just 9% of cases detected by first RT-PCR coronavirus test
As of 04/21, 37 confirmed cases of infection with the 20C / 655Y [B.1.616] variant have been reported in France, including 34 in Brittany and 3 in other regions in people linked to the area of circulation of the virus in Brittany (made up of several urban communities around Lannion, Guingamp, Saint-Brieuc, Paimpol). More...
Sri Lanka: New and more potent strain of coronavirus detected in Sri Lanka – “The variant can stay airborne for almost an hour and is spreading quick”
A brand new coronavirus variant that’s airborne and stronger than all those discovered beforehand in Sri Lanka has been found within the island nation, an immunologist has said in Colombo. More...
Tunisia: six people infected by an unidentified sars-cov-2 novel coronavirus strain in Manouba
In Manouba, Tunisia, six contaminations by an unidentified strain were detected on April 20, announces the regional health directorate. More...
UK SAGE: Lab studies suggest that the N501Y spike protein mutation increases binding to rat and mouse ACE2 leading to viral replication
A report issued by the UK government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) found the likelihood that a variant of concern (VOC) that has arisen in humans could infect a rodent and then spread among the animals is high. More...
Australia: Victoria shuts border to Perth, hundreds in coronavirus isolation
Victoria, Australia has closed its border to Perth residents after a passenger infected with coronavirus landed at Melbourne Airport.