Category: Africa
African Coronavirus News
Czech Republic: B.1.640 family cluster identified in Hradec Kralove, East Bohemia
The first case of infection with the B.1.640 coronavirus variant was detected in the Czech Republic, the University Hospital in Hradec Kralove reported.
France: B.1.640 declared a VOI after more than 500 cases found
Sars-CoV-2 variant B.1.640 has been reclassified as a Variant of Interest in France after a new risk assessment showed there have been more than 500 cases on the French mainland, with cases also discovered in the UK and Germany. More...
Long COVID patients lack naive T and B cells
Nature article: “Patients with long COVID had highly activated innate immune cells, lacked naive T and B cells and showed elevated expression of type I IFN (IFN-β) and type III IFN (IFN-λ1) that remained persistently high at 8 months after infection”
“T cell activation (indicated by CD38 and HLA-DR), T cell exhaustion and increases in B cell plasmablasts occur during severe COVID-19”
Full Nature article: Immunological dysfunction persists for 8 months following initial mild-to-moderate SARS-CoV-2 infection
More...Dear people, please understand: the crux of these assumptions lie on prior t cell immunity, and the virus is one step ahead in this regard; it kills cd8+ t cells.
EMA: Immune system could be overloaded by booster vaccinations
The European Medicines Agency warned this week that repeated booster shots are not a sustainable long-term plan. More...
Global case fatality rate drops to its lowest ever level during the pandemic
Finally, some good news on the Covid front. Whilst the world battles its way through a blizzard of Omicron, the lower death rate for the variant has sent the global case fatality rate tumbling to just 1.86%, the lowest level since the beginning of the pandemic. More...
Global winter wave of 2021 is now 50% higher than last year’s winter wave
The current global winter wave is already about 50% higher than last year’s wave, peaking at 14.5 million biweekly cases yesterday. More...
France: new Sars-CoV-2 variant B.1.640.2 with N501Y and E484K detected
Twelve SARS-CoV-2 positive patients living in southeastern France are infected with a variant with atypical mutations. More...
Preprint: Omicron infection enhances neutralizing immunity against the Delta variant
“We enrolled both previously vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals who were infected with SARS-CoV-2 in the Omicron infection wave in South Africa soon after symptom onset. More...
It’s the largest global Covid wave EVER
Driven by the new Omicron variant, the world is now being overwhelmed by the largest global Sars-CoV-2 wave EVER. More...
ALERT! The world’s highest ever daily case rate has just been recorded
The world saw it’s highest ever number of Covid infections in one day yesterday. More...