Category Archives: Corona Virus

President Biden on Wednesday came out in favor of the World Trade Organization's proposed waiver of patent protections for COVID-19 vaccines. Evan Vucci/AP hide caption

President Biden on Wednesday came out in favor of the World Trade Organization's proposed waiver of patent protections for COVID-19 vaccines.

President Biden threw his support behind a World Trade Organization proposal on Wednesday to waive intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines, clearing a hurdle for vaccine-strapped countries to manufacture their own vaccines even though the patents are privately held.

"This is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures," U.S. trade representative Katherine Tai said in a statement. "The Administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for COVID-19 vaccines."

The pace of vaccinating against COVID-19 in the U.S. is slowing down. In some places, there are more vaccine doses than people who want them.

Meanwhile, India is now the epicenter of the pandemic, and just 2% of its population is fully vaccinated.

The WTO is considering a proposal to address that inequity, as India, South Africa and over 100 other nations advocate to waive IP rights for COVID-19 vaccines and medications, which could let manufacturers in other countries make their own.

The consequences of not passing the waiver are "staggering," Mustaqeem de Gama, South Africa's World Trade Organization counselor, told NPR "not only on the level of the loss of human lives but also on the economic level."

"We believe that intellectual property rights constitute a very substantial barrier to ensure equitable access," he said. "We believe that if we could have a limited, targeted waiver to ensure that we can ramp up production in various parts of the world, we would go a long way to ensure that we address not only the prevention but also the treatment of COVID-19."

Previous to Wednesday's announcement, the U.S. was among several other wealthy nations including the U.K., Canada and Japan that resisted WTO negotiations about the proposal.

In response to the administration's support, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a drug industry trade group, expressed strong opposition and argued that the move represents a break in long-standing U.S. policy over medical patents amid global inequities.

"In the midst of a deadly pandemic, the Biden Administration has taken an unprecedented step that will undermine our global response to the pandemic and compromise safety," a statement from PhRMA reads. "This decision will sow confusion between public and private partners, further weaken already strained supply chains and foster the proliferation of counterfeit vaccines."

The trade group added that the decision will compromise U.S. job creation and the country's place as a leader in biomedical innovation.

The battle mirrors the one during the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1990s, when drug companies warred with global health officials who sought to produce generic treatments. Drugmakers eventually retreated after former South African President Nelson Mandela accused the companies of using patents to profit from his country's health crisis.

The HIV crisis gave way to a precedent in relaxing patent restrictions: In 2001, the WTO added the Doha Declaration to its Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement to allow low-income nations to import and develop generic versions of patented medicines.

The head of the World Health Organization praised the Biden administration's intent to lift the proprietary limits on COVID-19 vaccines.

"This is a monumental moment in the fight against #COVID19," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Twitter. "The commitment by @POTUS Joe Biden & @USTradeRep @AmbassadorTai to support the waiver of IP protections on vaccines is a powerful example of leadership to address global health challenges."

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Biden Backs Waiving International Patent Protections For COVID-19 Vaccines - NPR

The Duchess of Sussex believes women should be prioritised as the world recovers from the coronavirus pandemic.

The 39-year-old royal addressed viewers of the Vax Live concert on Saturday night (08.05.21) after she and husband Prince Harry acted as campaign chairs for the event, which supports COVID-19 vaccinations across the globe and featured performances from stars such as Jennifer Lopez and Foo Fighters.

In a pre-recorded message, Meghan said: "The past year has been defined by communities coming together tirelessly and heroically to tackle COVID-19. We've gathered tonight because the road ahead is getting brighter.

"But it's going to take every one of us to find our way forward. As campaign chairs of Vax Live, my husband and I believe it's critical that our recovery prioritises the health, safety and success for everyone - and particularly women, who have been disproportionately affected by this pandemic."

The former actress - making her first TV appearance since her and The Duke of Sussex's tell-all interview with Oprah Winfrey in March - told viewers that "women, and especially women of colour, have seen a generation of economic gain wiped out" during the pandemic and can only "rebuild" once jabs have been distributed fairly across the world.

Meghan said: "But if we work together to bring vaccines to every country and continent, insist that vaccines are equitably distributed and fairly priced, and ensure that governments around the world are donating their additional vaccines to countries in need, then we can begin to fully rebuild.

"Not only to restore us to where we were before, but to go further, and rapidly advance the conditions, opportunity, and mobility for women everywhere."

The duchess - who was known as Meghan Markle before she married Prince Harry - admits that the campaign is of particular importance as she and her husband are expecting a baby daughter.

Meghan - who shares son Archie, two, with Harry - said: "My husband and I are thrilled to soon be welcoming a daughter.

"It's a feeling of joy we share with millions of other families around the world. When we think of her, we think of all the young women and girls around the globe who must be given the ability and the support to lead us forward."

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Duchess of Sussex wants women to be the focus of coronavirus recovery - Inside NoVA

A large vaccination site is shown as people with preexisting health conditions are granted access to a vaccination during the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Inglewood, California, U.S., March 15, 2021. REUTERS/Mike Blake

The United States is closer to getting the coronavirus pandemic under control and health officials are focused on the next challenge: getting more Americans vaccinated, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said on Sunday.

"I would say we are turning the corner," Zients said in an interview with CNN's "State of the Union."

Zients said about 58% of American adults have received at least one coronavirus vaccine shot. The task now is to continue building confidence in vaccines and get enough Americans vaccinated to mitigate the spread of the virus and its variants, he said.

U.S. health officials are aiming to meet President Joe Biden's goal of 70% of American adults having at least one shot by the July 4 U.S. Independence Day.

Zients said reaching that goal could help the country reach a sustainable low level of infections.

About 46% of all Americans have received at least one coronavirus vaccine shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Graphic on global vaccinations)

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said another surge in coronavirus infections would be unlikely if the Biden goal is met or exceeded.

"The larger proportion of the population that's vaccinated, the less likelihood that in a season like the coming fall or winter you're going to see a significant surge," Fauci said on NBC' "Meet the Press."

"That's the reason why vaccinations are so important. That's the wild card that we have now that we didn't have last fall or the last winter."

Zients defended the latest masking guidelines from the CDC, which recommends that fully vaccinated people should still wear masks at crowded outdoor events or when they go indoors in public settings with other people who may not be vaccinated.

Some health experts have questioned whether the CDC guidelines are too strict, and that removing the indoor mask mandate for fully vaccinated people could encourage confidence in the vaccines. That move would not, however, protect unvaccinated people from contracting the virus from a carrier who has been vaccinated.

The CDC guidelines will over time allow more people to take off their masks, Zients said, while acknowledging Americans' mask fatigue.

"We're getting there," Zients said. "And the light at the end of the tunnel is brighter and brighter. Let's keep up our guard."

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U.S. turning the corner on pandemic, says White House COVID coordinator - Reuters

The report on the Coronavirus test kits market in North America provides a holistic update, market size and forecast, trends, growth drivers, and challenges, as well as vendor analysis.

In addition, the report also provides an up-to-date analysis regarding the current global market scenario and overall market environment. The market is driven by the regional outbreak of coronavirus and product innovations

The Coronavirus test kits market in North America analysis includes End User segmentationand Geographiclandscape. This study identifies fastrackapproval of diagnostic kits as one of the prime reasons driving the market growthin North America growth during the next few years.

This report presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources by an analysis of key parameters.

The Corona Virus test kits market in North America covers the following areas:

Corona Virus Test Kits Market SizingIn North AmericaCorona Virus Test Kits Market Forecast In North AmericaCorona Virus Test Kits Market Analysis In North AmericaCompanies Mentioned

Related Reports onHealth Care Include:Coronavirus Test Kits Market by End-user and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025: The coronavirus test kits market size will decrease by USD11.01 billion during 2021-2025,according to Technavio. Download PDF Sample

MRSA Testing Market by End-user and Geography - Forecast and Analysis 2021-2025: The MRSA testing market size has the potential to grow by USD 518.33 million during 2021-2025,according to Technavio. Download PDF Sample

Key Topics Covered:

Executive Summary

Market Landscape

Market Sizing

Five Forces Analysis

Market Segmentation by End-user

Customer landscape

Geographic Landscape

Vendor Landscape

Vendor Analysis

Appendix

Technavio suggests three forecast scenarios (optimistic, probable, and pessimistic) considering the impact of COVID-19. Technavio's in-depth research has direct and indirect COVID-19 impacted market research reports.Register for a free trial today and gain instant access to 17,000+ market research reports.Technavio's SUBSCRIPTION platform

About UsTechnavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focuses on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions. With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavio's report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavio's comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

ContactTechnavio ResearchJesse MaidaMedia & Marketing ExecutiveUS: +1 844 364 1100UK: +44 203 893 3200Email: [emailprotected]Website: http://www.technavio.com/Report:https://www.technavio.com/report/coronavirus-test-kits-market-in-north-america-industry-analysis

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Coronavirus Test Kits Market In North America- Abbott Laboratories, Becton, Dickinson and Co., Co Diagnostics Inc., among others to contribute to the...

An empty hotel and beach which have opened for visitors is seen in Karon, Phuket Island, Thailand March 31, 2021. Picture taken March 31, 2021. REUTERS/Jorge Silva/File Photo

Thailand expects to offer the Moderna (MRNA.O) vaccine to most of its population soon as it steps up the rollout of its COVID-19 vaccination campaign, a health official said on Saturday.

The latest drive comes amid growing public criticism of the slow rollout of free vaccinations offered by the government, which stands at 1.73 million shots so far - less than 1% of its population.

Health authorities have yet to start mass vaccinations even as the tourism-reliant country struggles with a third wave of infections.

The government expects 61 million shots of AstraZeneca to be produced locally from June. But these vaccinations and those from Moderna will not be offered free.

Moderna last month applied for vaccine registration in Thailand, which should be approved soon, said Withoon Danwiboon, head of the Government Pharmaceutical Organization.

"What we expect from Moderna is its commitment on how soon they will bring in their vaccine," he said.

India's Bharat Biotech has started the application process for vaccine registration while China's Sinopharm has yet to apply, he said.

Thailand has so far approved the vaccines of Sinovac Biotech (SVA.O), AstraZeneca (AZN.L) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N). read more

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said Thailand would try to secure more vaccines, on top of existing orders of about 65 million.

"Our current target is for 100 million doses of vaccines, but Thailand should have 150 million doses or more," he posted on his Facebook page on Saturday.

Thailand's latest outbreak has been exacerbated by the highly transmissible UK coronavirus B.1.1.7 variant, leading to more than 52,000 infections and 288 fatalities in just over five weeks.

On Saturday, 2,419 new coronavirus cases were reported, with 19 new deaths.

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Thailand set to boost COVID-19 vaccinations, expects to approve Moderna shots - Reuters

Children account for more than a fifth of new U.S. coronavirus cases in states that release statistics by age, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. Tang Ming Tung/Getty Images hide caption

Children account for more than a fifth of new U.S. coronavirus cases in states that release statistics by age, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The number of children contracting COVID-19 in the U.S. is much lower than the record highs set at the start of the new year, but children now account for more than a fifth of new coronavirus cases in states that release data by age, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. It's a statistic that may surprise many: Just one year ago, child COVID-19 cases made up only around 3% of the U.S. total.

On Monday, the AAP said children represented 22.4% of new cases reported in the past week, accounting for 71,649 out of 319,601 cases. The latest report, drawn from data collected through April 29, illustrates how children's share of coronavirus infections has grown in recent weeks.

Experts link the trend to several factors particularly high vaccination rates among older Americans. The U.S. recently announced 100 million people were fully vaccinated against COVID-19. But other dynamics are also in play, from new COVID-19 variants to the loosening of restrictions on school activities.

It's also worth noting that for the vast majority of the pandemic, the age group with the highest case rates has been 18 to 24 in the U.S., as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes.

To get a sense of what's behind the rising proportion of cases in children, we spoke to Dr. Sean O'Leary, vice chair of the AAP's Committee on Infectious Diseases. O'Leary is also a professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado Medical Campus and Children's Hospital Colorado.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Does it surprise you, the kind of numbers we're seeing for children right now?

Well, yes and no. I think there are several things going on. One, of course, are the new variants that are circulating. This B.1.1.7 variant that's really becoming dominant in a lot of the country is more transmissible. I think the jury is still a bit out on if it's more severe. It's not clear if it's particularly more transmissible in kids. But at this point, it appears it's just more transmissible in everyone, including kids.

Certainly, vaccination is playing a role in terms of the changing in the demographics of who's getting infected.

In many parts of the country, depending on how states track their data 60 and older, 65 and older, 70 and older very high proportions of those populations in some places have been vaccinated.

We've seen a dramatic drop in the proportion of cases that are happening in those individuals, which is great news. But that, just by simple math, is going to change the proportion of cases that are happening in the other demographics.

In terms of raw numbers, the worst stretch of coronavirus infections for children was in a 13-week stretch from early November to February. The numbers fell as the U.S. exited its end-of-year wave. But since around mid-March, child coronavirus cases have not fallen at the same rate as adult cases.

We are seeing more outbreaks than we had related to school and school activities. We've seen those all along, and we're seeing a little bit more of those now proportionately than we had. And I think that's also due to a combination of factors. Again, the variants, but also more kids in the last couple of months are in in-person school than they had been in prior months.

With mitigation measures in place in school, it still appears that transmission is much lower than it is in the surrounding community. But when you have a surge in the surrounding community, it's inevitable that you're going to see it in schools.

The other thing that we've seen is more outbreaks in school-related activities, particularly sports and indoor sports in particular.

What do you make of the most recent data, showing kids accounted for about 20% of new cases in the past week?

As older portions of the population get vaccinated and we're still seeing circulation, it just stands to reason that the kids who are not eligible for vaccination yet are going to make up a larger share of that pie. I mean, the hope is that the overall pie itself gets smaller the number of infections overall. But yeah, if it's circulating, it's going to hit the people that are most vulnerable, which are the people that haven't been vaccinated.

Now, the good news is we may, in the coming weeks, have the vaccine approved down to age 12. We don't have any official dates on that yet, but it may be soon. Pfizer submitted their data to the FDA last month. So that could be a big game changer because we've known all along that adolescents tend to be both more likely to get infected and to spread the infection relative to the younger kids. So getting that population vaccinated is also going to make a difference in these dynamics. And I think it also can make a big difference for a lot of families' summer plans.

We should note that kids still represent a really small proportion of the worst-case outcomes.

Yeah, that is true. It's a somewhat nuanced conversation though. In Michigan, they've been reporting higher rates of hospitalizations in kids than they had [been]. It's unclear to me if that simply represents intense transmission versus actually increased severity. I think that's not entirely clear yet. Here in Colorado, we have a little surge going on. In most states actually, cases are going down. We're still kind of in a plateau, maybe increasing a bit here in Colorado. We have seen a slight uptick of kids hospitalized with COVID-19 here at Children's Hospital, but it's not dramatically so, not like what we were seeing in November, December or January.

Now, the part where that conversation about severity gets a little bit more complicated is yes, it is absolutely true that it's less severe in kids than it is in adults, and particularly older adults. But it's also not true to say that it's completely benign in kids. Fortunately, pediatric death is a fairly rare event. But when you look at the top 10 causes of death, on an annual basis, this year, we've had, depending on whose numbers you use, somewhere between 300 and 600 pediatric deaths from COVID-19 so far. That's probably an undercount. And that would fit it somewhere in the top 10, somewhere between like No. 6 and No. 9 in terms of causes of death for children.

So the point I'm making, there is that yes, it's less severe, but it's still potentially a very severe disease. We've seen tens of thousands of hospitalizations already. So we do need a vaccine for children, not just to protect, not just to achieve herd immunity, but also to protect the children themselves.

What about "long COVID" are kids showing extended months of symptoms from the disease?

In kids, we have seen it, but it doesn't seem to be as common as adults. We're taking care of a few kids now who are still having symptoms well over a month past their infections. I think, as little as we know about long COVID in adults, we know even less in kids. We really have even less of an understanding of the overall epidemiology of how common it is in kids.

The other question mark in my mind around this phenomenon is, many viruses can trigger sort of longer-term symptoms. A classic example would be mononucleosis: Some kids will have fatigue and symptoms for six to 12 months, occasionally even longer. So what's unclear to me at this point is if long-term symptoms are more frequent with COVID-19 than with some of the other viruses we've seen. But I wouldn't say that we're seeing sort of an epidemic of long COVID kids the way we have in adults.

How difficult is it to get data on children and COVID-19? I know that for its weekly reports, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association compile data from 49 states, along with New York City, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia and Guam. That leaves out the rest of New York state. And Texas only reports on the lower age range for a small percentage of the state's cases.

That's correct. There have been problems with data around this pandemic all along, including this particular situation. I think as long as you're comparing apples to apples, recognizing the limitations, I think that you can interpret the data. But, yeah, it's clearly an undercount.

Standardized data about COVID-19 cases across states has been pretty hard to get. From early on, it seemed like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other federal agencies did not comprehensively standardize the different data that was out there.

Yeah, I mean, that's been a frustration throughout the pandemic. It was kind of shocking to me, frankly, even though I kind of worked in this field for a long time, that the AAP was really the best source of pediatric data through much of the pandemic for the U.S. And the AAP is a big organization, but we have a fairly small research shop, and it was the AAP that was compiling this data.

I absolutely adore my colleagues from the CDC. And they have really done herculean work through this pandemic. But they had so many things they had to deal with related to the pandemic crisis after crisis with adults that they just didn't have the capacity at the time to be able to track the kids who were, as we know, less severely affected.

What else should people understand about children and the COVID-19 pandemic?

We've been answering these questions about children and infections for almost a year, I guess. And what we've seen all along is that what is happening in children is simply reflective of what's going on in the surrounding community. It's not really driving what's going around in the surrounding community. And I think that's still the case, actually.

You know, where there are lots of cases happening in a given state that are going to be lots of cases and kids. But it's not to say that the kids are driving those numbers. And I think that that although we have seen increases in the proportion of kids, I think that that is still true.

Traditionally, people think of children sharing viruses among each other and then giving them to adults. And this seems like that dynamic is almost the inverse.

It's a strange virus, isn't it?

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Children Now Account For 22% Of New U.S. COVID Cases. Why Is That? - NPR

Funeral pyres burn in a disused granite quarry repurposed to cremate the dead due to COVID-19 on Friday in Bengaluru, India. The U.S. is set to impose new travel restrictions against travelers from the country. Abhishek Chinnappa/Getty Images hide caption

Funeral pyres burn in a disused granite quarry repurposed to cremate the dead due to COVID-19 on Friday in Bengaluru, India. The U.S. is set to impose new travel restrictions against travelers from the country.

The Biden administration is set to enact a travel ban on any non-U.S. citizens or permanent residents coming to the country from India as multiple coronavirus variants have driven India's COVID-19 outbreak to troubling new heights. The policy will take effect starting on Tuesday, the White House said.

India had already been under a Level 4 Do Not Travel advisory from the State Department, which issued or updated scores of travel advisories related to the continued spread of the coronavirus last week. The new ban will take the precaution to a new level.

The policy will not apply to U.S. citizens, a Biden administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Lawful permanent residents and other people with exemptions would also be allowed to travel from India to the United States.

As part of existing restrictions on international passengers, anyone arriving in the U.S. would still be subject to coronavirus testing measures and must enter quarantine if they have not been vaccinated.

The travel ban is being imposed on the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki.

In a statement issued Friday, Psaki said, "The policy will be implemented in light of extraordinarily high COVID-19 caseloads and multiple variants circulating" in India.

Like many countries, India dealt with an initial wave of the coronavirus in 2020. But it's now enduring a tsunami of new cases, forcing a shortage of key resources, from hospital space to oxygen tanks.

Unlike some nations that have been able to avoid a new spike in deaths and critical hospitalizations despite recent outbreaks, India is also seeing an unprecedented number of deaths. The country reported nearly 3,500 deaths on Friday alone. And some health professionals allege that local officials have pressured them to underreport COVID-19 deaths, as NPR's Lauren Frayer and Sushmita Pathak reported. Testing kits are also in short supply in India, feeding speculation that the scale of the outbreak is even larger than official reports suggest.

India has been setting, and breaking, world records for the most daily reported COVID-19 cases for the past week as its citizens and public health officials watch infection rates rise at terrifying rates. It reached a new high mark Friday when India's Health Ministry reported 386,453 new infections.

The rate of new cases in India has steadily eclipsed the previous world record of more than 312,000 cases that the U.S. reported in early January. The U.S. remains the country with the most reported COVID-19 cases, with more than 32.3 million, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. India has reported nearly 18.8 million cases.

The U.S. is sending several emergency relief shipments to India; the State Department said late Thursday night that the first flight landed.

Vice President Harris also told reporters Friday that a plane loaded with aid, including oxygen, was leaving the U.S. for India that night. "We have long-standing, decades-old relationships with India, with the Indian people in particular, around public health issues," Harris said.

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U.S. Will Impose New Ban On Travel From India As Coronavirus Rages - NPR

With worldwide COVID-19 cases on the rise again, the race to find an effective treatment for the disease continues.

Researchers from Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, NY, believe that a combination of drugs already approved for use in the United States could be the key in treating COVID-19.

Stay informed with live updates on the current COVID-19 outbreak and visit our coronavirus hub for more advice on prevention and treatment.

The researchers combined remdesivir, which doctors already prescribe to hospitalized patients with COVID-19, with different hepatitis C virus (HCV) medications. They hoped to identify a combination that slows viral replication.

Here we see a promising synergy that, if confirmed through additional research and clinical trials, could provide a new antiviral to combat COVID-19, says Dr. Gaetano Montelione, Ph.D., a professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY.

Since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus a pandemic in March 2020, nearly 150 million people have contracted the virus, and approximately 3 million have died.

Over the past year, researchers have investigated numerous drugs and therapies to help treat COVID-19.

Remdesivir, for example, can treat COVID-19 in an inpatient setting. According to one article, remdesivir can target specific viral enzymes or attack a weak point of viral replication within the host.

Certain corticosteroids, such as dexamethasone, can reduce inflammation in people with COVID-19.

Researchers also considered using hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19. Doctors use hydroxychloroquine to treat malaria and rheumatoid arthritis, but further research showed that it did more harm than good in people with COVID-19.

The authors of the recent paper, which appears as a pre-proof in the journal Cell Reports, considered 10 different HCV drugs in their study. Their goal was to find something that amplified the effects of remdesivir in people with COVID-19.

The research team thought that the HCV drugs could bind to an enzyme called Mpro. This enzyme is SARS-CoV-2s main protease, which is essential for viral replication.

The team tested the HCV drugs in monkey and human cells. They found that 7 of the 10 drugs could act as a SARS-CoV-2 inhibitor.

Although seven drugs were effective at inhibiting replication of the virus, further experiments showed that four of them inhibited a different protease called PLpro.

The four drugs that were effective at boosting the benefits of remdesivir were paritaprevir, grazoprevir, simeprevir, and vaniprevir.

Those drugs synergized with remdesivir. This means that they increased remdesivirs effectiveness at reducing viral replication by as much as 10-fold.

Combined use of remdesivir with PLpro inhibitors for the treatment of COVID-19 could be a game changer for [people] with COVID-19 who are not vaccinated, says study author Dr. Adolfo Garcia-Sastre.

Dr. Kris White, an assistant professor of microbiology at Icahn Mount Sinai in New York City, NY, believes that the new research could produce a highly effective antiviral cocktail.

Chris Coleman, an assistant professor of infection immunology at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom, told Medical News Today that this research has multiple positive aspects.

Targeting two steps of the viral replication means you hit the virus twice, making it less likely that the virus will mutate to escape the treatment, he explained.

Although the combination has much potential, researchers say that there is one major roadblock to overcome: Remdesivir is not an oral drug. People receive it intravenously in a hospital setting, so a doctor would not be able to simply write a prescription and send a person home for treatment.

It can take 30 minutes to 2 hours to inject remdesivir. Additionally, people typically receive it daily, and treatment can last for 510 days.

Administering the medication only in a hospital setting poses a number of problems. Not only would it be less than ideal for people who are ill to travel to receive treatment, but it would also be less accessible due to cost and travel constraints.

Our goal is to develop a combination of oral drugs that can be administered to outpatients before they are sick enough to require hospitalization, says co-corresponding study author Dr. Robert M. Krug.

Dr. Jonathan Stoye, a virologist at the Francis Crick Institute in London, U.K., told MNT that he finds the results promising but that more work is necessary.

This interesting study seeks to identify novel strategies for the therapy of COVID-19 using combinations of FDA-approved, repurposed drugs originally developed against other viruses, said Dr. Stoye.

It clearly demonstrates that drugs targeting the protease of HCV in combination [with] remdesivir show synergistic inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 replication.

However, although these results are promising, they seem rather preliminary since the mechanism by which the drugs synergize is not established. In particular, the true target(s) of the protease inhibitors remains poorly defined.

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New combination of drugs may help treat COVID-19 - Medical News Today

A deadly second wave of coronavirus infections is devastating India, leaving millions of people infected and putting stress on the countrys already overtaxed health care system.

Officially, by the beginning of May, more than 19.3 million infections had been confirmed and more than 219,000 people were dead, but experts said the actual figures were most likely much higher. In the same period, India was responsible for more than half of the worlds daily Covid-19 cases, setting a record-breaking pace of more than 300,000 a day.

For the most up-to-date figures, The New York Times is tracking the latest case counts here.

Months ago, India appeared to be weathering the pandemic. After a harsh initial lockdown, the country did not see an explosion in new cases and deaths comparable to those in other countries.

But after the early restrictions were lifted, many Indians stopped taking precautions. Large gatherings, including political rallies and religious festivals, resumed and drew millions of people.

Beginning this spring, the country recorded an exponential jump in cases and deaths.

By April, some vaccinated individuals, including 37 doctors at one New Delhi hospital, were found to have contracted the virus, leaving many to wonder if a more contagious variant was behind the second wave.

Many in India already assume that the variant, B.1.617, is responsible for the severity of the second wave. The variant is sometimes called the double mutant, though the name is a misnomer because it has many more mutations than two. It garnered the name because one version contains two genetic mutations found in other difficult-to-control variants.

Researchers outside of India say the limited data so far suggests instead that the variant called B.1.1.7, which has affected Britain and the United States, is more likely to blame.

So far, the evidence is inconclusive, and researchers caution that other factors could explain the viciousness of the outbreak.

At the center of the Indias crisis is Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who early this year declared victory over the virus.

Mr. Modis Covid-19 task force did not meet for months. His health minister assured the public in March that India had reached the pandemics endgame. As infections rose, Mr. Modi allowed large gatherings to help his governing Bharatiya Janata Party and burnish its Hindu nationalist credentials. His government approved a Hindu festival with millions of worshipers. He campaigned in state elections without a mask at rallies of thousands of maskless supporters.

Critics say his administration was determined to cast an image of India as back on track and open for business despite lingering risks. At one point, officials dismissed warnings by scientists that Indias population remained vulnerable and had not achieved herd immunity as some in his administration were suggesting.

The growing distress across the country has tarnished Mr. Modis aura of political invulnerability, which he won by steamrolling the opposition and by leveraging his personal charisma to become Indias most powerful politician in decades. Opposition leaders are on the attack, and his central hold on power has increasingly made him the target of scathing criticism online.

In the first local elections since the start of the second wave, Mr. Modis B.J.P. was unable was unable to secure a much-sought-after victory on Sunday in West Bengal, one of Indias most populous states. The B.J.P. won more seats in the local legislature than it did in the last election, but was unable to seize control from the opposition All India Trinamool Congress, an indication of displeasure at Mr. Modis handling of the Covid crisis.

Overwhelmed by new cases, Indian hospitals cannot cope with the demand, and patients in many cities have been abandoned to die.

Understand the Covid Crisis in India

Clinics across the country have reported an acute shortage of hospital beds, medicines, protective equipment and oxygen.

The Indian government says that it has enough liquid oxygen to meet medical needs and that it is rapidly expanding its supply. But production facilities are concentrated in eastern India, far from the worst outbreaks in Delhi and in the western state of Maharashtra, and it can take several days for supplies to reach there by road.

Families of the sick are filling social media with pleas for oxygen as supplies run low at hospitals or because they are trying to administer care at home.

Some in Delhi say they have paid at least 10 times the usual price for oxygen, and the news media have carried reports of cylinders being looted from hospitals.

India is one of the worlds leading vaccine manufacturers, but it has struggled to inoculate its citizens.

Less than 10 percent of Indians have gotten even one dose. Now, the countrys pain may be felt around the world, especially in poorer countries.

India had planned to ship out millions of doses. But given its stark vaccination shortfall, exports have essentially been shut down, leaving other nations with far fewer doses than they had expected.

Charities, volunteers and businesses in India and beyond are trying to help the countrys Covid victims and frontline workers.

(Before giving money to an organization, make sure you feel comfortable with it. In the United States, sites like Guidestar and Charity Navigator grade nonprofits on their effectiveness and financial health.)

Here are a few ways to help.

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What We Know About India's Deadly Second Wave of Covid-19 - The New York Times

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, wears a protective mask during a meeting in Brussels last week. Olivier Matthys/Bloomberg via Getty Images hide caption

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, wears a protective mask during a meeting in Brussels last week.

The head of the European Commission said Monday that she is recommending that nonresident travelers vaccinated against COVID-19 and those from "countries with a good health situation" be allowed to travel to the European Union this summer.

However, von der Leyen cautioned in a tweet Monday that if variants of the coronavirus emerge, "we have to act fast: we propose an EU emergency brake mechanism."

Current EU restrictions allow only travelers from seven countries to enter the 27-member bloc, regardless of whether they've been vaccinated.

Last week, von der Leyen said U.S. travelers would be allowed to resume travel to EU countries but did not give a time frame. The economies of many EU nations, such as Spain and Italy, rely heavily on tourism and have been hard hit by the prolonged absence of Americans due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The recommendation is set to be discussed on Tuesday and must be approved by all EU member states to come into force, according to Reuters. Individually, countries could still decide to honor the recommendation even if some don't, the news agency said.

Meanwhile, on Monday, in a letter to President Biden and U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, several groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and others representing the airline and travel industries in both the U.S. and the U.K., urged the two leaders to reopen their travel markets.

A planned G-7 summit in the U.K. on June 11 the first since the start of the pandemic "would be an ideal opportunity for a joint announcement of the full reopening of the U.S.-UK air travel market for both U.S. and UK citizens," they suggested.

"We are confident that the right tools now exist to enable a safe and meaningful restart to transatlantic travel," the industry groups wrote, according to Bloomberg.

Among the groups that signed on to the letter are Airlines for America, the Global Business Travel Association, the Air Line Pilots Association, Virgin Atlantic, the Association of UK Airlines and the Aerospace Industries Association.

Although air passenger numbers in the U.S. remain historically low, the country has been rebounding, with the Transportation Security Administration reporting that more than 1.6 million people were screened at airports on Sunday, compared with only around 170,000 a year ago.

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EU Moves Closer To Welcoming Vaccinated Tourists This Summer : Coronavirus Updates - NPR