Pandemic in Development, Global Trends

Society » HEALTH | February 4, 2021, Thursday // 10:37
Bulgaria: Pandemic in Development, Global Trends

Globally, the burden of Covid-19 cases has decreased, but the uneven distribution of life-saving vaccines could prolong the economic recovery and leave developing countries even further behind, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, CNBC reported.

In the week that ended 31January, 3.7 million new cases of coronavirus were reported worldwide, a 13% decrease compared to the previous week, according to the latest WHO Covid report. Covid-19 deaths, which lag behind the new cases for several weeks, showed a modest 1% decrease in the last week of January.

That's welcome news, but more than 3 million new infections "are still an awful lot of people," said Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of the WHO emergency health program.

"The rain has decreased, but the sun hasn't come out yet," Ryan said during an online question-and-answer session streamlined live from WHO headquarters in Geneva.

Health experts have also warned that the new, highly contagious variants of the virus, first identified in the UK, South Africa and Brazil, could add fuel to already raging outbreaks in countries around the world.

A faster-spreading virus could lead to more infections, eventually causing more hospitalizations and deaths if it spreads uncontrolledly. But even in areas where new variants of the coronavirus have emerged, cases of the infected are declining, said Maria Van Kerkhove of WHO.

In the UK, where the B.1.1.7 variant was identified in December, cases were down by 31% compared to the previous week, according to the WHO report. Similarly, in South Africa, which also discovered a similar variant called B.1.351late last year, cases decreased by 44%, the report said.

"This is important because people are afraid when they hear mutations, mutants and new strains," Kerkhove said. 'However, we can't now lower our guard. We can't give up."

The emergence of new variants of coronavirus is no surprise to scientists, since it is normal for viruses to mutate as they spread. Experts worry that some of the strains, in particular the B.1.351 variant found in South Africa, may pose a risk to the effectiveness of currently available vaccines and therapeutics.

Drug makers maintain that their vaccines should still work against the new variants, but health experts stressed the importance of curbing the spread of the virus to prevent more mutations while countries administer the initial supply of Covid vaccines.

However, not all countries have been granted equal access to life-saving medicines.

Of the countries that have begun vaccination of their citizens, most are higher-income countries that have requested the early supply of vials through their own supply contracts, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned.

That's a problem because vaccines will ultimately allow countries to reopen their economies without risking to increase pressure over hospitals and deaths from the virus, Ryan said Wednesday. The WHO has advocated for countries to register with COVAX, a global alliance whose co-chair, in the face of WHO, aims to deliver coronavirus vaccines to the world's poorest countries.

The program hopes to deliver 2.3 billion doses by the end of this year. Earlier on Wednesday, COVAX officials announced that they had so far allocated at least 330 million doses to poorer countries which they hope to start delivering by the end of February or early March. These early doses will be aimed at vaccinating people at greatest risk, such as health workers.

Ryan also said this would allow countries to restart their economies without worrying about adding more strain to their hospital systems, but that would not be possible until "we can deliver the minimum number of doses of vaccine to all countries."

"If we want our societies to be open, if we want to take the course to normalizing our life, then we need to be honest about how we allocate funds," Dr. Ryan said. 'At the moment, the uneven distribution of vaccines means that not all communities will get the same chance to go back to normal and that's just not fair.'

Is it possible that a person immunized with the first dose of one vaccine, get the second injection from another?

In theory, it is quite possible, but before that it is essential to do a lot of research, said for El Pais, Spanish specialist Maria Montoya, head of the viral immunology group at the Margarita Salas Center for Biological Research (CSIC), who is on the board of directors of the Spanish Society of Immunology investigating SARS-CoV-2.

So far, the companies that developed the vaccines have only tested their own drugs over volunteers. Clinical trials are currently carried out of the same vaccine in both the first and second dose. This is because of the speed with which everything is done to have vaccines that are safe and to protect people as soon as possible, explains Maria Montoya.

The possible combination of two different vaccines has not been experimentally tested in humans, but has been done in animals and with other diseases.

In order to make it possible to combine two vaccines – one for the first, another for the second dose, extensive clinical trials are required, thoroughly checking all parameters. For example, the time that should elapse between the first and second dose, which is the best combination in alternation, that is, which works better if A is first and B is second, or vice versa. "There are many variables that have not yet been studied or identified," admits Maria Montoya.

For now this is only a theoretical assumption, and on paper there is nothing that makes us think that such alternation can be harmful, she adds. 'But this can't be put into practice until we have the knowhow. Many different types of vaccines will come out in the coming months, and one option is precisely combining them," the expert points out.

At the moment, the problem is in carrying out emergency vaccination of as many people as possible from the at-risk groups, as well as the shortage of vaccines, and not in the possibility to combine two of them. Because as long as there are not enough doses in stock, you can not think of combinations, especially vaccines of different companies, which are stored under different conditions, and whose combination has not been tested at all, stresses Maria Montoya.

Switzerland did not give approval for AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, the national medicines regulator Swissmedic reported, asking for more and quality data before approving the vaccine to be used, Reuters reported. The agency reminds that the vaccine received European Union approval last week.

Switzerland also announced that it has ordered millions of additional doses of COVID-19 vaccines from other manufacturers.

The country, which has already ordered 5.3 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, said it was awaiting test results in the Americas involving tens of thousands of people.

"Once we receive the results, a provisional authorisation under the allocation procedure can be granted very quickly," Swissmedic said in a statement. According to the regulator, the data currently available does not warrant a positive decision on the benefits and risks.

 Due to the emergence of the new variants of Covid-19 and the spike in new cases of coronavirus, the Greek authorities are considering a serious tightening of the anti-epidemic measures, reports the Greek news agency in.gr.

A perfectly possible scenario is to close schools again and switch to online learning, as well as to close stores that do not offer essentials. Among the measures discussed is that in Athens the curfew will start at 6 p.m. instead of 9 p.m., as it is now.

The agency notes that the data on the morbidity curve for the next 48 hours will be crucial.

 

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Tags: Coronavirus, global trends

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