What you need to know about the coronavirus right now

(Reuters) – Right here’s what it’s good to know in regards to the coronavirus proper now:

Scientists on alert over rising circumstances brought on by Omicron cousin BA.2

The extremely transmissible Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus – the most typical type of which is named BA.1 – now accounts for almost the entire coronavirus infections globally, though dramatic surges in COVID-19 circumstances have already peaked in some international locations.

Scientists at the moment are monitoring an increase in circumstances brought on by a detailed cousin often called BA.2, which is beginning to outcompete BA.1 in components of Europe and Asia. Some early stories point out that BA.2 could also be much more infectious than the already extraordinarily contagious BA.1, however there is no such thing as a proof up to now that it’s extra more likely to evade vaccine safety.

China punishes cold-chain managers for ‘obstructing’ COVID prevention

Investigations into China’s cold-chain sector have led to a number of managers, officers and enterprise homeowners being punished for failing to satisfy COVID prevention requirements, the nation’s corruption watchdog mentioned in a discover.

A number of officers have been expelled from the Communist Occasion and will face additional legal punishment, in accordance with a discover printed by the CCDI late on Sunday. China has been an outlier in asserting that COVID could be transmitted by way of cold-chain imports resembling frozen meat and fish, regardless that the World Well being Group has performed down the danger.

Spotify says it should add content material advisory to podcasts that debate COVID

Spotify Expertise SA will add a “content material advisory” to any podcast episode that features dialogue about COVID, CEO Daniel Ek mentioned, after coming underneath fireplace from rock and folks legends for giving voice to misinformation about COVID vaccines.

The advisory will direct listeners to a COVID hub that accommodates information and knowledge from medical and well being consultants, in addition to hyperlinks to trusted sources.

The transfer comes after singer-songwriters Neil Younger and Joni Mitchell introduced they’re eradicating their music from Spotify in protest that the favored streaming service has allowed the airing of misinformation about COVID vaccines.

Australia stories fewer COVID deaths, infections as college students return to colleges

Australia reported its lowest each day COVID deaths in two weeks on Monday whereas circumstances continued to development decrease as authorities braced for workers shortages in faculties as a consequence of seemingly outbreaks as 1000’s of scholars return after their summer season break.

Masks are necessary indoors for older kids and tens of millions of at-home antigen exams, nonetheless not available in lots of shops, are being rolled out to households freed from value, with kids requested to endure COVID exams twice every week.

About 40% of kids aged 5-11 years have been administered their first vaccine dose, whereas round two-thirds of eligible Australians have obtained their boosters.

Intranasal booster makes use of virus spike to reinforce immunity

As soon as the physique has been “primed” by mRNA vaccines to recognise and assault the coronavirus, a booster containing purified variations of the virus’ spike protein that might be given intranasally would have many benefits, researchers imagine. Their “Prime and Spike” technique employs a booster vaccine presently being examined in animals.

In mice with waning immunity after two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech shot, the purified spike protein vaccine strongly boosted first- and second-line immune responses to the virus within the nostril, lungs and blood and guarded towards deadly doses of the virus, researchers reported on Wednesday on bioRxiv forward of peer evaluate. In mice whose immune techniques had not been “primed” with the mRNA vaccine, the spike protein vaccine had no impact, nevertheless, as a result of it takes benefit of the physique’s adaptive immunity, constructing on what the immune system has realized from the mRNA vaccine.

(Compiled by Karishma Singh; Enhancing by Himani Sarkar)