HomeCoronavirus Watch
Coronavirus Watch
Masks helped limit COVID transmission in unvaccinated students — US study
Masking, along with fewer exposure encounters, helped significantly to cut the incidence of COVID-19 infection among largely unvaccinated US university students.
Among nearly 400 close...
SAHPRA: As yet, none of post-vaccination deaths caused by the jab
With just more than 12 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines already administered countrywide, the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) said during a...
Sputnik vaccine’s backers attack SAHPRA over emergency authorisation
SA’s medicines regulator has come under attack from the financial backers of the Russian COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V, claiming its failure to grant the...
South African youngsters get their first jabs in Sinovac trials
Sinovac launched COVID-19 clinical trials for South African children aged from six months to 17 years old last Friday (10 September), with two 17-year-olds...
Public Health England: New COVID-19 variant detected in Colombia
A new coronavirus variant, known as B.1.621, and first detected in Colombia, has shown signs of evading the immune response triggered by either COVID-19...
Black American women with vitamin D insufficiency at increased COVID-19 risk
Black American women with low levels of vitamin D appeared are at increased incidence of COVID-19 infection, found research led by Boston University’s Slone...
Association between loss of smell in after SARS-CoV-2 infection and cognitive impairment
Older adults frequently suffer persistent cognitive impairment after recovery from SARS-CoV-2 infection and this is correlated with persistent loss of smell (anosmia), according to...
Neurological injury biomarkers in acute COVID-19 normalise in the long term – Swedish study
The normalisation of central nervous system (CNS) injury biomarkers in all individuals, regardless of previous disease severity or persisting neurological symptoms, indicates that post...
Full-dose Heparin reduced need for organ support in moderately ill COVID-19 patients
Full-dose blood thinners have been found to reduce the need for organ support in moderately ill COVID-19 patients, but not in critically ill patients,...
Previous COVID prevents Delta infection better than Pfizer shot — Israel study
Natural immunity confers longer lasting and stronger protection against infection, symptomatic disease and hospitalisation caused by the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, compared to Pfizer-BioNTech...
Effectiveness of Pfizer vaccine in pregnancy — Clalit Health Services study
The BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine has similar high vaccine effectiveness in pregnant women as to that in the general population, a study in Nature found.
To evaluate...
Pfizer vaccination linked to 3x high risk of myocarditis — Israel study
The Pfizer COVID-19 mRNA vaccine was found to be associated with a threefold increased risk of myocarditis, according to a real-world case-control study from...
Vaccine potency dips 11 percentage points over 8 months — HEROES-RECOVER
A US study calculated COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness to be 80% in a large group of fully vaccinated frontline workers between December 2020 and August...
Most blue surgical masks ineffective against COVID-19 — Canada study
Most blue surgical face masks used by many during the pandemic are not enough to avoid people from being infected with COVID-19, a Canadian...
Antibody combo significantly reduces risk of COVID-19 — AstraZeneca phase III trial
A cocktail of long-acting antibodies, administered intramuscularly as COVID-19 prevention, cut the risk of developing symptomatic disease in a high-risk unvaccinated patient population, AstraZeneca...
Limiting SARS-CoV-2 transmission at large events is possible — Experimental mass gathering
The transmission of SARS-CoV-2 at large indoor events could be limited with effective ventilation and suitable hygiene measures, suggests a paper published in Nature...
Early convalescent plasma for high-risk outpatients with COVID-19 — Trial stopped
The final results of the Clinical Trial of COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma in Outpatients (C3PO) demonstrate that COVID-19 convalescent plasma did not prevent disease progression...
US wildfire smoke may have contributed to thousands of extra COVID-19 cases and deaths
Thousands of COVID-19 cases and deaths in California, Oregon, and Washington between March and December 2020 may be attributable to increases in fine particulate...
CDC panel backs third Pfizer and Moderna shot for the immunocompromised
Moderately to severely immunocompromised Americans who received mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 should receive an additional dose, said the US Centre for Disease Control and...
Cerebral venous thrombosis and the AstraZeneca vaccine — UK cohort study
The largest study yet of cerebral venous thrombosis after vaccination against COVID-19 (VITT), shows that those affected were younger, had fewer venous thrombosis risk...
COVID-19 breakthrough infections in vaccinated healthcare workers – Israel cohort study
Among Pfizer–BioNTech fully vaccinated healthcare workers, most breakthrough infections were mild or asymptomatic, although persistent symptoms did occur, found an Israeli study.
Since its rollout...
Peru: Sinopharm vaccine 50.4% effective in COVID-surge fuelled by variants
A two-dose COVID-19 vaccine from China's Sinopharm was 50.4% effective in preventing infections in health workers in Peru during a COVID-19 surge in cases...
SolidarityPlus trial of COVID-19 treatments: Cancer drug imatinib
After months in the doldrums, writes Science Mag, one of the worldʼs largest trials of COVID- 19 treatments is finally restarting. Solidarity, the global...
Promise for COVID-19 medication among tapeworm drugs — Scripps Research
A group of medications long prescribed to treat tapeworm has inspired a compound that shows two-pronged effectiveness against COVID-19 in laboratory studies, according to...
COVID-19 reinfection twice as likely in the unvaccinated — CDC study
A study, published as part of the strong>Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), found that unvaccinated...
More than one in 10 of Britain’s first wave COVID patients were in-hospital infections
At least 11.1% of COVID-19 patients in 314 UK hospitals were infected after admission during the first wave of the pandemic, rising to between...
Full-dose Heparin reduced need for organ support in moderately ill COVID-19 patients
Full-dose blood thinners have been found to reduce the need for organ support in moderately ill COVID-19 patients, but not in critically ill patients,...
Neurological injury biomarkers in acute COVID-19 normalise in the long term – Swedish study
The normalisation of central nervous system (CNS) injury biomarkers in all individuals, regardless of previous disease severity or persisting neurological symptoms, indicates that post...
Association between loss of smell in after SARS-CoV-2 infection and cognitive impairment
Older adults frequently suffer persistent cognitive impairment after recovery from SARS-CoV-2 infection and this is correlated with persistent loss of smell (anosmia), according to...
Black American women with vitamin D insufficiency at increased COVID-19 risk
Black American women with low levels of vitamin D appeared are at increased incidence of COVID-19 infection, found research led by Boston University’s Slone...
Public Health England: New COVID-19 variant detected in Colombia
A new coronavirus variant, known as B.1.621, and first detected in Colombia, has shown signs of evading the immune response triggered by either COVID-19...
Gargling: An under-explored strategy to control COVID transmission
An under-explored strategy to better control transmission of SARS-CoV-2, especially in children to young to be vaccinated, may involve the use of a dilute...
COVID antibody levels boosted sixfold with mixed AstraZeneca-Pfizer shot
A South Korean study has found that taking an AstraZeneca vaccine shot followed by a Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine boosted COVI-19 antibody levels six times more...
COVID-19 increases acute myocardial infarction and ischaemic stroke risk
COVID-19 is a risk factor for acute myocardial infarction and ischaemic stroke, according to a large Swedish study in The Lancet.
COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2,...
Almost half of ICU staff battle mental health issues during pandemic — International study
An Imperial College London study found that of 515 healthcare staff working in intensive care units (ICUs) across seven countries, on average 48% of...
FDA expands emergency use of REGEN-COVTM (casirivimab and imdevimab)
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals has announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has updated the Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) for the investigational COVID-19 antibody...
Longer gap between COVID-19 Pfizer vaccine significantly boosts immunity
One of the most in-depth studies into COVID-19 immune response to vaccines to date shows a short and long dosing interval of the Pfizer...
New indicator estimates that COVID cut lifespan by up to 9 years in parts of US
A new metric, the “Mean Unfulfilled Lifespan” (MUL), that estimates the impact on lifespan of temporary “shocks” like the COVID-19 pandemic, reduced lifespan by...
Isolating of highest-risk people during the first wave not as effective as hoped
Shielding, or self-isolating, those at highest risk from COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic may not have been as effective at protecting...
Sputnik V vaccine efficacy against SARS-CoV-2 variants — Small Argentina study
Serum samples from 12 individuals in Argentina who received two doses of the Gamaleya Sputnik V vaccine indicate that the vaccine is effective at...