Category: Africa
African Coronavirus News
New coronavirus variant B.1.525 with E484K, Q677H, F888L and a similar deletions to B117
International lineage with variants of biological significance E484K, Q677H, F888L and a similar suite of deletions to B.1.1.7. More...
The Global coronavirus case fatality rate CFR is now at 2.21% and rising
The global case fatality rate, which fell consistently from May 1st 2020 until January 18th 2021, is now rising steadily and currently stands at 2.21%
The global Covid-19 case rate (those who have tested positive for sars-cov-2 by testing) has fallen recently, but the case fatality rate (those who have died of Covid-19 following a confirmed test) has not fallen in step with the case reduction. More...
WHO: Recovered coronavirus patients have been reinfected with new virus strains
Preliminary reports from South Africa suggest people with prior Covid infection could be reinfected with a new, more infectious variant of the virus, the World Health Organization said. More...
Circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants B.1.1.7, 501Y.V2, and P.1 have gained ability to utilize rat and mouse Ace2 and altered in vitro sensitivity to neutralizing antibodies and ACE2-Ig
Here, we first investigated cross-species receptor usage of multiple SARS-CoV-2 variants that emerged during the pandemic. More...
Fauci: new coronavirus variant has caused reinfection in South Africa
Fauci: “When we were communicating with our many scientific and public health colleagues in South Africa, they were telling us over the phone ‘something strange is going on right now, we have people who were infected several months ago, who now with this new strain are getting reinfected, which is telling you that the immune response induced to the first infection wasn’t good enough to prevent the second infection”
https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-vaccine-updates-01-30-21/index.html More...
Novavax vaccine works well except on N501Y.V2 South Africa variant
An early analysis in Britain found that the Novavax vaccine had an efficacy rate of nearly 90 percent. More...
SARS-CoV-2: nearly 100m infections, 2m deaths and the global CFR has stopped falling
John Hopkins University figures for 24th January 2021:
331 school students test positive for Covid-19 but are told to remain at school
331 students from Lilongwe Girls Secondary School students in Lilongwe, Malawi tested positive for Covid-19 last week. More...
Major outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 South African Variant 501YV2 in Ostend, Belgium
Belgium has declared its first major outbreak of the South African variant of the virus that causes Covid-19 [501Y.V2], More...
Study of convalescent sera from 44 South Africans infected in first wave, >90% showed reduced immunity & 48% had complete immune escape to 501Y.V2
Study of convalescent sera from 44 South Africans infected in first wave >90% showed reduced immunity and 48% had complete immune esape to 501Y.V2 More...