What you need to know about coronavirus on Friday, January 8th

What you need to know about coronavirus on Friday, January 8th

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In the United States, the number of daily deaths has reached a new record on three consecutive days. Yesterday, that number reached 4,000 for the first time.

Germany, South Africa and Sweden also reported their deadliest days yesterday, while the UK had its worst day since April. Switzerland, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Panama, Slovakia and Lithuania are among the countries that recorded the highest daily fatalities earlier this week.

The new, more contagious strains of the virus appear to be responsible for some of the peaks in the cases. South Africa, where one of the variants was first identified, has seen more than 200,000 new cases in the past two weeks. At the same time, a humanitarian crisis is unfolding on the country’s border with Zimbabwe, where hundreds of workers have been blocked by a national blockade that prohibits cross-border travel.

Public health officials around the world are desperately begging citizens to follow known safety precautions. Avoiding large meetings, limiting contacts with people outside your home and wearing a mask are essential.

This applies even if you don’t feel sick. A study published yesterday found that more than half of Covid-19 cases may have been transmitted by people who have no symptoms.

YOU ASKED. WE RESPOND

Q: Does the Covid-19 vaccine work against new mutations?

AN: One study provides initial evidence that the Pfizer vaccine may be effective against two new variants of the coronavirus first identified in South Africa and the United Kingdom.

The two viruses share a mutation known as N501Y, which scientists feared could allow the virus to escape the immunity generated by a vaccine. The researchers made a version of the virus that carries this mutation and then tested it on blood collected from 20 people who received two doses of the Pfizer injection as part of a clinical trial. In research published yesterday, they said they found “no reduction in neutralization activity” against the mutated virus.

The study – conducted by researchers at Pfizer and the University of Texas Medical Branch – does not test the full range of these mutations. It was also not peer-reviewed.

Submit your questions here. Are you a healthcare professional battling Covid-19? Send us a message on WhatsApp about the challenges you are facing: +1 347-322-0415.

WHAT’S IMPORTANT TODAY

Two Arthritis Drugs May Help Covid-19’s Sickest Patients

Initial research has shown that administering infusions of tocilizumab or sarilumab, two drugs commonly used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, in critically ill patients with Covid-19 was associated with an 8.5% improvement in disease survival and discharge from the unit. intensive care in a hospital about a week to 10 days faster.

“It’s a huge change in survival,” said Anthony Gordon, lead investigator for the REMAP-CAP study and professor at Imperial College London. “We also saw patients recover more quickly. They were getting better and getting out of the ICU faster – and that was on average and each patient is a little different ”.

A year after Wuhan, China blocks another city

China has arrested a city of 11 million in its northern Hebei province in an effort to contain the country’s worst coronavirus outbreak in months. Residents of Shijiazhuang, a provincial capital near Beijing, were prevented from leaving, with major highways blocked, train and bus stations closed and flights canceled.

The blockade occurs when a total of 117 Covid-19 infections – including 67 asymptomatic cases – were detected in Shijiazhuang on Wednesday. The city identified another 66 positive cases yesterday, according to the Hebei provincial health commission. The outbreak in that city comes just weeks before the Lunar New Year holiday, China’s most important annual festival, which usually receives millions of people traveling home to be reunited with their family.

LA County sees one virus death every eight minutes

The number of people dying from Covid-19 in Los Angeles County in one day is equivalent to the number of homicides the city has seen in an entire year, Mayor Eric Garcetti told a news conference yesterday.
The county is the epicenter of the California epidemic, with one person dying from the virus every eight minutes. “People who used to lead healthy and productive lives are now dying from a chance encounter with the Covid-19 virus,” health officials said earlier this week. “It only ends when each of us makes the right decisions to protect each other.”
A patient waits on a trolley for a room at Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center in Tarzana, California, on January 3, 2021.

ON OUR RADAR

  • Australia and the United Kingdom will demand that international arrivals show negative results from the Covid-19 test.
  • Coronavac, the candidate vaccine developed by the Chinese laboratory Sinovac, has been shown to be 78% effective during Phase 3 tests in Brazil.
  • A Philadelphia 76ers player tested positive, forcing the team to spend the night in New York.
  • Australia’s Greater Brisbane goes into blockade to prevent the spread of the UK’s Covid-19 strain.
  • Iran’s supreme leader calls for a ban on the entry of Covid-19 vaccines into the country.
  • Taking social detachment to a whole new level, Sweden’s Gothenburg Film Festival is inviting a film fan to spend a week on an isolated lighthouse island, with only films and the North Sea for company.
  • The World Health Organization calls on European countries to intensify pandemic measures as the region deals with a new variant.

BEST TIP

This year will be marked as a year of uncertainty, anxiety and – if you’re like many people – a lot of stress-related eating.

However, there is no need to stress about stressful eating. Since most of us are looking forward to new vaccines and a healthier lifestyle, here are some tips on how to better supply your body in 2021.

TODAY’S PODCAST

“Half an hour after landing, I had my luggage, I was taken to a bus and taken to the hotel where I would be quarantined.” – Emily Liu, associate producer at CNN

Imagine a country that is not under a strict block or struggling to find hospital beds to care for Covid patients; where people regularly eat and drink indoors. This country exists – it is Singapore. One of our associate producers, Emily Liu is there now, and today she takes us to a place where life seems almost normal again. Listen now.

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