Coronavirus Watch

Global Statistics

More than 14.8 million people around the world have been diagnosed with the coronavirus and 613,253 have died. More than 600,000 people worldwide have died from the novel coronavirus since the global pandemic began including 205 065 deaths in Europe – the worst-affected continent.

The United States has recorded over 143,000 deaths, the most in the world followed by Brazil (80,251), Britain (45,312), Mexico (39,184) and Italy (35,058). The number of deaths linked to Covid-19 has doubled in just over two months, and more than 100 000 new deaths have been registered in the three weeks since 28 June.

The virus is spreading rapidly in Latin America – the region with the second-most recorded deaths – where 160 726 people have died. WHO says COVID-19 cases in Brazil no longer rising exponentially.

Russia reported 5,940 new cases and 85 more deaths from the coronavirus. The nationwide tally of infections has risen to 777,486 cases, Russia’s coronavirus crisis response centre said. The death toll now stands at 12,427, and 553,602 people have recovered.

A cumulative total of 373 628 confirmed Covid-19 cases in South Africa have been recorded. There have been 140 new Covd-19 related deaths. This brings the cumulative number of deaths to 5 173. The number of recoveries currently stands at 194 865 which translates to a recovery rate of 52%. 48 deaths have been reported in the mining sector in South Africa and there are 2,313 active cases from the virus. This information is from a total number of 385 mines.

Zambia has been witnessing exponential growth over the past few days with most of the cases being reported to be imported cases from surrounding countries in the region. Yesterday the country recorded 178 new cases of the virus to bring the total number of cases to 3,326. The country in the SADC region now has the second highest Covid-19 infections.

103 new cases were recorded in Zimbabwe to bring the total number of cases to1, 713; 1 new death was recorded and the death toll is now at 26. Bulawayo remains the province with the highest number of cases as cumulatively 425 cases have been reported whilst Harare has 405 cases. Cases in the Midlands continue to rise as 63 cases have been recorded so far and reports from local media outlets reported that 35 nurses at Zvishavane District Hospital tested positive for the virus.

Statistics from Botswana and Lesotho remain unchanged.

What the latest positive news on a leading Covid-19 vaccine candidate means

AstraZeneca’s experimental Covid-19 vaccine was safe and produced an immune response in early-stage clinical trials in healthy volunteers, according to a study published in a top journal on Monday.

The vaccine, called AZD1222, and being developed by global bio-pharmaceutical company Astra Zeneca and scientists at Britain’s University of Oxford, did not show any serious side-effects and produced sufficient antibody and T-cell immune responses, according to trial results published in The Lancet medical journal. The researchers performed a phase 1/2 single-blind randomized controlled trial in five trial sites around the UK.

The vaccine was developed from a chimpanzee adenovirus-vectored vaccine, which was combined with a spike protein from SARS-Cov-2 – this means that the adenovirus, a milder virus that causes nothing more serious than a common cold, was “fed” with genetic instructions to help the trick the body in creating antibodies against SARS-Cov-2, the coronavirus that is currently causing Covid-19.

What comes next?

Once the safety of the vaccine has been established, the trial moves on to phase II/III – which, for the ADZ222 vaccine, is already under way in the UK and Brazil. The study in the UK is ongoing and has already enrolled more than 4 000 participants, and an even larger study of 10 000 is due to start soon.

When will the vaccine be ready?

While the results from the phase II/III trials are yet to be determined, the promising early results of phase I/II trials puts ADZ222 ahead of the pack. However, the data on this vaccine does not yet provide enough information to predict whether it will be more effective than other contenders yet. News 24

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21/07/2020