Jan 8 (Reuters) - Here's what you need to know about the coronavirus right now:
Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine appears effective against mutation in new coronavirus variants, study says
Pfizer Inc (NYSE:PFE) and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine appeared to work against the so-called N501Y key mutation in the highly transmissible new variants of the coronavirus discovered in the UK and South Africa, according to a laboratory study conducted by the U.S. drugmaker.
The study was conducted on blood taken from people who had been given the vaccine. Its findings are limited, because it does not look at the full set of mutations found in either of the new variants of the rapidly spreading virus.
Phil Dormitzer, one of Pfizer's top viral vaccine scientists, said it was encouraging that the vaccine appears effective against the mutation, as well as 15 other mutations the company has previously tested against. "So we've now tested 16 different mutations, and none of them have really had any significant impact. That's the good news," he said. "That doesn't mean that the 17th won't." study says Wuhan COVID infections 3 times higher than official figure
The number of people who have been infected with COVID-19 in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the virus was first identified, could be around three times the official figure, according to a study by Chinese researchers based in the city.
The paper, published by the PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases journal on Thursday, analysed blood samples from more than 60,000 healthy individuals taken from locations across China from March to May 2020, and found that 1.68% of those from Wuhan contained antibodies for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. With the city's total population at more than 10 million, the researchers estimated that as many as 168,000 Wuhan residents were infected with the virus, compared to the official number of 50,340 hospitalised cases.
The study suggested at least two-thirds of the total number were asymptomatic, and thousands could have been infected after the "elimination" of clinical cases, raising the possibility the virus could exist in a community for a long period without causing hospitalisations. Britain require negative COVID-19 test to enter
Travellers to Australia will have to show a negative COVID-19 test before they can get on their plane, the prime minister said on Friday, as Brisbane, the country's third-largest city, went into lockdown after the discovery of a case of a virulent new coronavirus variant.
The more than 2 million residents of Brisbane will be barred from leaving their homes for anything but essential business for three days from Friday evening after a worker at a quarantine hotel tested positive for the new variant, which was first detected in Britain. Brisbane residents out on essential business must wear masks. government will also require people entering England to present a negative COVID-19 test result on arrival starting next week to protect against new strains of the coronavirus from other countries, the government said on Friday. Sanofi (PA:SASY) arthritis drugs reduce death rates among sickest patients
Treating critically ill COVID-19 patients with Roche's Actemra or Sanofi's Kevzara arthritis drugs significantly improves survival rates and reduces the amount of time patients need intensive care, study results showed on Thursday.
The findings, which have not yet been peer-reviewed, showed that the immunosuppressive drugs - Actemra, also known as tocilizumab, and Kevzara, also known as sarilumab - reduced death rates by 8.5 percentage points among patients hospitalised and severely ill with the pandemic disease.
That would mean that for every 12 patients treated with one of the two drugs, an extra life would be saved, said Anthony Gordon, an Imperial College London professor of anaesthesia and critical care who co-led the study.
"A crucial difference may be that in our study, critically ill patients were enrolled within 24 hours of starting organ support," he said. "This highlights a potential early window for treatment where the sickest patients may gain the most benefit from immune modulation treatment."