Coronavirus Watch.

Global Statistics

10,590,724 cases of the Coronavirus have been registered worldwide after 174,264 new cases were recorded. The death toll is currently at 514,020 after 5, 072 new deaths were recorded yesterday. 

The United States had the most cases in the world – more than 2.72 million as well as the most deaths – more than 130 000. 

At least 16 US states have halted their reopening plans in response to a surge in new infections, but some health officials in the country say the spread of coronavirus will be difficult to control.
Experts have long warned that some states reopened far too soon and too quickly, cautioning the move could lead to more spikes in cases.

The European Union has formally agreed a set of recommendations that will allow travelers from outside the bloc to visit EU countries, months after it shut its external borders in response to the outbreak of Covid-19. 
The list of 14 countries does not include the United States, whose current Covid infection rate does not meet the criteria set by the EU for it to be considered a “safe country.”

The majority of infections and deaths in India happened in June where more than 400,000 cases and nearly 12,000 fatalities were reported last month, according to the Times of India newspaper.

India currently has 585,792 confirmed cases and 17,410 deaths, according to figures from the health ministry. 

The UK has the third highest Covid-19 death toll globally with,43,730 fatalities after the US and Brazil.

11,611 new cases were recorded in Africa to bring to 407,925the number of cases in the continent. 

The latest number of confirmed cases in South Africa is 151 209. According to the latest update, 2 657 deaths have been recorded in the country. There have been 73 543 recoveries. 
1.63 million tests have been conducted, with 33 013 new tests. Health Minister Zweli Mkhize has warned that South Africa is on the verge of facing a spike in coronavirus cases and related deaths which means another hard lockdown “may become necessary”. 

Eswatini recorded 17 new cases to bring the total number of cases in the kingdom country to 812. There are 408 recoveries and 393 active cases. 

17 new cases were recorded in Zimbabwe and the cumulative number of Covid-19 cases in the country is now 591. There have been 162 recoveries and the number of active cases is 422. A total of 67,755 tests have been conducted nationwide. 

Statistics in Lesotho did not change from the 27 confirmed cases. 

Could antibodies from SARS help fight Covid-19?

As the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic intensifies, experts are trying various options, including the use of antibodies created in people after infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Right now, scientists are still not sure about the extent of immunity provided by SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. Even though the body does respond to the virus by creating antibodies, experts are still divided on how long these antibodies can provide immunity.

It is believed that this immunity may be short-lived, which will require booster vaccines or follow-up treatments. Now, research published in Nature shows the evidence needed to consider in the development of antibody immunotherapy.

To help with this, the researchers went back to investigate antibodies from a person infected with SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), which was also caused by a coronavirus.

Coronavirus stems from the word “corona”, which means “crown”, referring to the spikes on the surface of the virus. These spikes help the virus to adhere to various cells in the body, where it then binds to a protein on the cell’s surface, called the ACE2 receptor.

 The ideal antibodies to help fend off SARS-CoV-2 in the body would have to be able to recognize these viral spikes and block the virus’s ability to bind to the ACE2 receptors. These types of antibodies would be known as “neutralising” antibodies”. News 24

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1/07/2020

(Source: Kitco)