29th Mar 2022 https://nfind.uk/lockdown_exit/index.php/newsletter=630 lockdown_exit

Lockdown Exit

The Wall Street Journal Half of Shanghai went into lockdown on Monday as authorities escalated measures to contain a spiraling Covid19 outbreak in Chinas financial capital. After announcing the snap twostage lockdown of the city on Sunday Shanghai reported 3500 new Covid19 cases another record with the number of infections doubling every few days. On Monday barricades were seen splitting up the city while many metro services and bus lines were suspended. Companies including Tesla Inc. suspended manufacturing for four days. https://www.wsj.com/articles/shanghai-lockdown-experiment-begins-as-officials-race-to-clear-covid-19-11648482912?mod=hp_featst_pos3 28th Mar 2022

Lockdown Exit

Reuters Chinas financial hub of Shanghai launched a twostage lockdown of its 26 million residents on Monday closing bridges and tunnels and restricting highway traffic in a scramble to contain surging COVID19 cases. The snap lockdown announced by the local government late on Sunday will split Chinas most populous city roughly along the Huangpu River for nine days to allow for staggered testing by healthcare workers in white hazmat suits. It is the biggest COVIDrelated disruption to hit Shanghai and sent prices of commodities including oil and copper lower on fears that any further curbs could hurt demand in China the worlds secondlargest economy https://www.reuters.com/world/china/shanghai-reports-record-asymptomatic-covid-cases-lockdowns-begin-2022-03-28/ 28th Mar 2022

Lockdown Exit

Reuters Chinas financial hub of Shanghai launched a twostage lockdown of its 26 million residents on Monday closing bridges and tunnels and restricting highway traffic in a scramble to contain surging COVID19 cases. The snap lockdown announced by the local government late on Sunday will split Chinas most populous city roughly along the Huangpu River for nine days to allow for staggered testing by healthcare workers in white hazmat suits. It is the biggest COVIDrelated disruption to hit Shanghai and sent prices of commodities including oil and copper lower on fears that any further curbs could hurt demand in China the worlds secondlargest economy https://www.reuters.com/world/china/shanghai-reports-record-asymptomatic-covid-cases-lockdowns-begin-2022-03-28/ 28th Mar 2022

Lockdown Exit

Africanews Ghana is the latest African country to ease its Covid19 rules. In his 28th Covid19 address President President AkufoAddo announced an update on the measures taken to limit the spread of the virus. Citing a review premised on the background of rapidly declining infections the relative success of the vaccination campaign ... and the increased capacity in the public and private health sectors the leader presented measures set to take effect on Monday March 28. 2 years after President AkufoAddo closed all borders he announced the opening of sea and land borders vowing the economy would soon rebound. https://www.africanews.com/2022/03/28/ghana-opens-borders-and-eases-majority-of-covid-19-restrictions/ 28th Mar 2022

Lockdown Exit

Sky News More than 600000 people in England will be invited for a COVID19 booster jab next week. Since the beginning of the spring booster programme last week NHS England said more than 470000 people have already come forward for a jab. Around 5.5 million people in England aged over 75 or immunosuppressed will be eligible for a spring booster over the coming weeks and months. https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-600-000-people-to-be-invited-for-spring-booster-jabs-next-week-12575984 28th Mar 2022

Lockdown Exit

Reuters Group of 20 major economies G20 chair Indonesia has started talks with members on standardising health protocols for travel its health minister said stressing the importance of harmonising rules and technology as global travel resumes. An aide to Indonesias health minister Setiaji said countries were getting ready to roll out a global website to scan and verify travellers vaccination status. All G20 members support the rollout but China will not participate yet due to technical reasons he said without giving further details. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/g20-chair-indonesia-seeks-standardised-health-travel-requirements-2022-03-28/ 28th Mar 2022

Exit Strategies

Bloomberg The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is reinstating its standardized testing requirements citing that most students are now able to access the exams safely. Vaccine availability and an increase in students taking tests at school have alleviated challenges that had made it especially difficult for highschoolers to sit for the SAT and ACT during the pandemic MIT said Monday in a statement. Many colleges across the U.S. have made the requirements optional amid ongoing Covid disruptions and concerns that the tests unfairly favor wealthier students. The math component of the exams are especially important in evaluating whether a prospective student will do well at MIT the college said. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-28/mit-reinstates-test-mandates-many-colleges-dropped-during-covid 28th Mar 2022

Exit Strategies

The Washington Post The Food and Drug Administration is poised to authorize a second coronavirus vaccine booster for anyone 50 and older a bid to provide an extra layer of protection amid concerns Europes rise in infections from an omicron subvariant could hit the United States according to several government officials. The authorizations for second PfizerBioNTech and Moderna boosters could be announced as soon as Tuesday https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/03/26/coronavirus-vaccine-fourth-shot/ 28th Mar 2022

Exit Strategies

The Manila Times The Lao Ministry of Health plans to offer fourth doses of coronavirus vaccines to health care workers and people at risk of serious illness starting in April to shield them and other vulnerable groups from the highly transmissible Omicron variant. Booster shots will be used to ramp up levels of antibodies against the virus which will reduce the risk of severe illness local newspaper Vientiane Times reported https://www.manilatimes.net/2022/03/29/news/world/laos-eyes-giving-4thcoronavirus-vaccine-doses/1837956 28th Mar 2022

Exit Strategies

The Guardian Many people thought NoCovid was impossible but the handful of places that embraced it proved them wrong. Now that some of those places are themselves shifting to a reduction or mitigation strategy countries that opted for mitigation from the beginning are enjoying a we told you so moment. But NoCovids early champions had to shift in part because other countries let the virus rip. Even if their strategy didnt remain the optimal one it bought them time to prepare others. Its important that we remember that when the next pandemic sidles along. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/28/no-covid-approach-bad-press-but-worked 28th Mar 2022

Exit Strategies

EURACTIV The Bulgarian government will remove all restrictive measures against COVID19 from 1 April including the mandatory wearing of protective masks in closed public spaces and restrictions on public events. Bulgarian authorities say the decision to drop all measures was taken after the issue was discussed in detail over the past month. https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/short_news/bulgaria-to-remove-covid-19-restrictions/ 28th Mar 2022

Exit Strategies

Sky News Chinas dynamic COVID zero policy is actually two policies depending on where you are. To start with and while cases were lower than they are today officials relied on shutting down localised areas and testing residents to stop outbreaks as they started styled as the precision approach. But that has been abandoned in many places as the Omicron wave has worsened. https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-chinas-coronavirus-zero-policy-is-actually-two-policies-it-just-depends-where-you-are-12576605 28th Mar 2022

Partisan Exits

Bloomberg on MSN.com Personic Health Care has been providing free Covid testing for uninsured families in Philadelphia and northern Virginia throughout the pandemic thanks in part to federal support. But earlier this month when the White House said that the U.S. doesnt have the funds to cover those costs it put Personic a midsized patientmonitoring and telehealth company in a precarious spot. The company wants to continue offering the free tests but thats not sustainable through another surge of infections said Azmat Husain its founder and chief medical officer. https://www.msn.com/en-us/finance/other/us-covid-response-showing-cracks-as-congress-delays-funds/ar-AAVANBV 28th Mar 2022

Partisan Exits

Reuters Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said on Monday that he had supposedly tested positive for COVID19 with no major symptoms. I supposedly have it again sigh but almost no symptoms Musk said in a tweet. He questioned the accuracy of COVID19 tests in November 2020 after claiming that results showed he tested positive twice and then negative twice all on the same day. Musk then said he most likely had a moderate case of COVID19 as he continued to question the accuracy of the tests. He did not mention whether the results were from polymerase chain reaction tests which are more accurate than rapid tests. https://www.reuters.com/world/musk-says-he-has-supposedly-tested-positive-covid-again-2022-03-28/ 28th Mar 2022

Partisan Exits

The Guardian Come the end of March the lights will dim on the UKs Covid epidemic. Despite infection levels rising cases will plummet as free lateral flow and PCR tests are stopped for the majority of people in England with other countries in the UK also set to reduce free testing in the coming weeks and months. But while the government has argued it is time to manage Covid as we do other infectious diseases such as flu scientists have warned ending community testing could put vulnerable people at risk and undermine efforts to understand the virus. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/28/end-of-free-covid-testing-could-put-vulnerable-at-risk-say-uk-experts 28th Mar 2022

Partisan Exits

ABC News Political polarization in the U.S. was evident and intensifying long before the onset of the COVID19 pandemic two years ago. Polling shows that the emergence of the novel coronavirus in 2020 exacerbated the rift pushing Americans further apart on key pandemic response efforts. Surveys from Pew Research Center last year found that in the early months of the pandemic about 6 in 10 Democrats and Democraticleaning independents believed the virus was a major threat to the health of the U.S. population compared to only a third of Republicans and GOPleaning independents. That 26point gap would ultimately grow to approximately 40 points by the fall researchers found. https://abcnews.go.com/Health/red-blue-america-glaring-divide-covid-19-death/story?id=83649085 28th Mar 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

Bloomberg Corbevax a Covid19 vaccine developed in Texas has been approved for use in Botswana according to U.S. biotech billionaire Patrick SoonShiong. Doses of the vaccine currently in production have been reserved for the country he said at a ceremony on Monday in the southern African nations capital Gaborone. It will ultimately be made at a local factory called Pula Corbevax Botswanan President Mokgweetsi Masisi said. SoonShiong is helping launch production and the facility may later make another inoculation produced by his ImmunityBio Inc. It has now been given to 10 million young Indians safely SoonShiong said. We have now brought it to Botswana. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-28/botswana-approves-corbevax-covid-vaccine-plans-local-output 28th Mar 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

The Jerusalem Post The fourth coronavirus vaccine resulted in a 78 decrease in COVID19 related deaths in adults aged 60100 according to a new study by Clalit Health Services. The study conducted by Clalit Sapir College and BenGurion University of the Negev examined the effect the second booster shot had on mortality rates of the population eligible to receive it in Israel. The research was led by Dr. Ronen Arbel a health outcomes researcher at Clalit Health Services and Sapir College. The paper is currently awaiting peer review. https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/coronavirus/article-702441 28th Mar 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

BioPharma-Reporter AstraZenecas Evusheld has been approved in the EU for the prevention of COVID19 in adults and teens 12 years and older weighing at least 40 kg. https://www.biopharma-reporter.com/Article/2022/03/28/AstraZeneca-s-COVID-19-preventative-drug-gets-EU-approval 28th Mar 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

Arutz Sheva A longterm cohort study led by researchers at the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine of BarIlan University and Ziv Medical Center in Safed has produced further insight regarding the interplay between COVID19 infection and vaccination in providing protection over time. Seven to nine months after the second dose of the vaccine antibody levels throughout the cohort dropped and were comparable in all groups including among young people and those infected before vaccination. The booster however led to antibody levels ten times higher than after the second dose in all groups within the cohort. The study recently published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases further showed that all individuals including those with hybrid immunity infected and vaccinated require subsequent boosters beyond the two initial COVID19 vaccine doses. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/324752 28th Mar 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

CNN Over a year after recovering from a Covid19 infection Jennifer Hobbs is adjusting to her new normal brain fog joint pain elevated liver enzymes and now type 2 diabetes. Hobbs had prediabetes before she got Covid19 but her blood sugar levels were under control and she didnt need any treatment. Recently that changed. I take my blood sugar level every morning and even with two different types of medication its all over the place said Hobbs 36. The new diabetes diagnosis has both Hobbs and her primary care provider wondering if the coronavirus has played a role. Two years into the pandemic scientists and physicians are shifting their attention to the longterm consequences of a Covid19 infection termed long Covid. Recent studies add diabetes to the list of possible long Covid outcomes. https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/28/health/diabetes-covid-studies/index.html 28th Mar 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

Reuters Canadian vaccine maker Medicagos COVID19 vaccine approved last month in Canada is facing limited growth in the nearterm after the World Health Organization said it would not review the vaccine because the company is partly owned by U.S.Swiss tobacco company Philip Morris health experts say. The WHO said at a briefing this month and in a followup statement to Reuters that it has not accepted an application for the vaccine because of its 2005 public health treaty requiring no involvement with any company that produces or promotes tobaccobased products. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/medicagos-tobacco-ties-jeopardize-growth-its-covid-shot-2022-03-27/ 28th Mar 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

Reuters Senior citizens who received a second booster of the PfizerBioNTech COVID19 vaccination had a 78 lower mortality rate from the disease than those who got one only a study from Israel showed on Sunday. The countrys largest healthcare provider Clalit Health Services said the 40day study included more than half a million people aged 60 to 100. Some 58 of participants had received a second booster or two shots in addition to the basic twoshot regimen. The remainder had received only one booster. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/israeli-study-2nd-vaccine-booster-significantly-lowers-covid-death-rate-2022-03-27/ 28th Mar 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

Reuters Pfizers oral COVID19 therapy will be evaluated as a potential treatment for patients hospitalised with the illness in a major British trial scientists said on Monday as cases rise in some parts of the world. The worlds largest randomised study of potential medicines for COVID19 dubbed the RECOVERY trial will assess Paxlovid across hospitals in Britain which has already approved the drug for earlystage treatment. Paxlovid is a promising oral antiviral drug but we dont know if it can improve survival of patients with severe COVID19 said Peter Horby a professor at the University of Oxford and joint chief investigator of the RECOVERY trial. https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uk-study-test-pfizers-covid-pill-hospitalised-patients-2022-03-28/ 28th Mar 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

The Associated Press The pain in his chest was sudden heavy. Juan Sosa was at home doing pushups in the bedroom where he had isolated himself for almost two weeks after testing positive for COVID19. His mild symptoms were long gone and it was the final day of his quarantine. A retired carpenter Sosa had been vaccinated and considered himself a pretty healthy 58yearold. He thought he had gas and wasnt too worried. But the pain was severe so he drove himself to a walkin clinic. Doctors quickly determined Sosa was having a heart attack. An ambulance rushed him to HCA Florida Brandon Hospital. The last thing he remembers that day is a nurse cutting open his Tshirt. Veteran cardiologist Hoshedar Tamboli was seeing patients at his Brandon office when he got the call about a patient in cardiac arrest. https://apnews.com/article/covid-science-health-florida-heart-attack-33e384272435e881e0105ad1dee63a89 28th Mar 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

CIDRAP Two studies published yesterday in JAMA one from Sweden and Norway and one from Ontario find no link between COVID19 vaccination during pregnancy and adverse outcomes. No link to preterm birth stillbirth NICU admission In the first study a team led by researchers from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Oslo and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm studied 157521 singleton pregnancies ending after 22 weeks gestation among vaccinated and unvaccinated pregnant women listed in national birth registries. The study period began Jan 1 2021 ending on Jan 12 2022 in Sweden and 3 days later in Norway. Of the 157521 births 103409 took place in Sweden and 54112 occurred in Norway. Average maternal age was 31 years and 18 were vaccinated against COVID19 during pregnancy 12.9 with PfizerBioNTech 4.8 with Moderna and 0.3 with AstraZenecaOxford. Among the vaccinated women 4.4 received only one vaccine dose while 13.7 had two https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2022/03/covid-19-vaccines-not-tied-adverse-pregnancy-outcomes 28th Mar 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

FiercePharma With new strains of the coronavirus showing their elusiveness and pushing more antibody treatments toward irrelevance is there danger of an overreliance on COVID19 oral antivirals especially Pfizers Paxlovid Friday the U.S. paused the distribution of GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnologys antibody drug Xevudy in the northeast where the omicron subvariant BA.2 now accounts for more than half of new infections. The states included in the directive are Connecticut Maine Massachusetts New Hampshire New Jersey New York Rhode Island and Vermont. In addition Xevudys use will be halted in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Lab testing shows that a 500mg dose of Xevudy is not fully active against the BA.2 variant the FDA said. https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/fda-pauses-use-glaxosmithkline-and-virs-covid-19-antibody-treatment-xevudy-8-northeast 28th Mar 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

The Guardian Covid19 patients who have been hospitalised should also be routinely tested for flu researchers have said. The call was made after the publication of a paper in the medical journal the Lancet that revealed having both conditions more than doubles the risk of a patient dying. Scientists also discovered that individuals who had contracted both SarsCoV2 the virus that causes Covid19 and influenza viruses were more than four times more likely to require ventilation support and 2.4 times more likely to die than if they just had Covid19. We found that the combination of Covid19 and flu viruses is particularly dangerous said Professor Kenneth Baillie of Edinburgh University. We expect that Covid19 will circulate with flu increasing the chance of coinfections. That is why we should change our testing strategy for Covid19 patients in hospital and test for flu much more widely. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/27/patients-with-covid-and-flu-double-the-risk-of-dying-say-scientists 27th Mar 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

FiercePharma As Congress gridlocks on funding for new COVID19 therapies and vaccines mRNA bigwig Moderna is setting its sights on the endemic market for its wildly successful shot Spikevax the biotechs CEO has said. What is not clear today is will the U.S. become a private market which is the case for all other medicines we have access to Stphane Bancel speculated in an interview with Yahoo Finance during Modernas 3rd annual Vaccines Day on Thursday. The U.S. government says funding for COVID vaccines and therapeutics is waning which could spell trouble for Modernas megablockbuster shot sales. In fact Modernas 21 billion in advanced purchase agreements for this year includes no contribution from the U.S. Bancel pointed out. Still the feds could step in yet to purchase shots for the public the CEO suggested. https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/moderna-weighs-covid-shots-endemic-debut-federal-funding-pandemic-drugs-and-vaccines 25th Mar 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

STAT News U.S. health officials on Friday stopped the further deployment of the Covid19 treatment sotrovimab to places where the BA.2 coronavirus variant is now causing the majority of infections given laboratory studies showing the treatment likely doesnt work against the variant. States in New England as well as New York New Jersey Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands will no longer receive shipments of the monoclonal antibody therapy made by Vir Biotechnology and GSK officials said. This is not the first time that the evolution of the SARSCoV2 virus has undercut the power of certain antibody therapies which have generally been designed to target the virus spike protein. When the Omicron family of viruses took off late last year the government halted shipments of antibody therapies made by Lilly and Regeneron when it became clear that they would no longer work against the strains that were circulating. https://www.statnews.com/2022/03/25/fda-limits-therapy-ineffective-against-ba2-variant-omicron/ 25th Mar 2022

Coronavirus Resurgence

Reuters China reported 1293 confirmed coronavirus cases for March 28 the national health authority said on Tuesday compared with 1275 a day earlier. Of the new cases 1228 were locally transmitted the National Health Commission said versus 1219 a day earlier. The number of new asymptomatic cases which China does not classify as confirmed cases stood at 5758 compared with 5134 a day earlier. There were no new deaths leaving the death toll at 4638. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-reports-1293-new-covid-cases-march-28-vs-1275-day-earlier-2022-03-29/ 29th Mar 2022

Coronavirus Resurgence

Arutz Sheva A full 15596 new coronavirus cases were diagnosed Sunday Israels Health Ministry reported Monday morning. The new cases represent 22.08 of those whose test results were received that day. There are now 65799 active COVID19 cases in Israel. Though the percentage of positive cases remains quite high the infection coefficient which indicates whether the pandemic is expanding or contracting continues its decline dropping to 1.28 from its high last week of 1.43. https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/324762 28th Mar 2022

Coronavirus Resurgence

Evening Standard Article reports that the number of coronavirus patients in Scotlands hospitals has reached another record high for the sixth time in the past eight days.Scottish Government figures showed that on Sunday there were 2360 people with recently confirmed Covid19 in hospital the highest number since the start of the pandemic. The latest peak in hospital numbers comes after a slight fall in the total. https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/government-scottish-scottish-government-ons-b990931.html 28th Mar 2022

Coronavirus Resurgence

The Irish Times Article reports that the Minister for Health has said the extra transmissibility of the BA.2 variant means quite extreme measures would be needed to contain it. Stephen Donnelly is understood to have told an online meeting of Fianna Fil members on Monday night that there are likely several hundred thousand cases of Covid every week with daily numbers several times higher than those being tracked by PCR and antigen tests. Sources indicated that Mr Donnelly told the meeting said that the current transmissibility of the variant meant that extremely restrictive measures would be needed and said that he is told by the Chief Medical Officer CMO that extra restrictions of this level are not currently advised. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/covid-19-huge-stress-on-health-system-as-number-in-hospital-tops-1-600-1.4838091 28th Mar 2022

Coronavirus Resurgence

Reuters China reported 1275 confirmed coronavirus cases for March 27 the national health authority said on Monday compared with 1254 a day earlier. Of the new cases 1219 were locally transmitted the National Health Commission said versus 1217 a day earlier. The number of new asymptomatic cases which China does not classify as confirmed cases stood at 5134 compared with 4448 a day earlier. There were no new deaths leaving the death toll at 4638. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-reports-1275-new-covid-cases-march-27-vs-1254-day-earlier-2022-03-28/ 28th Mar 2022

Coronavirus Resurgence

The Associated Press Article reports that South Koreas daily average of new COVID19 cases declined last week for the first time in more than two months but the number of critically ill patients and deaths will likely continue to rise amid the omicrondriven outbreak officials said Monday. South Korea reported an average of about 350000 new cases last week the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said Monday. It was the first drop in the weekly average in 11 weeks KDCA Commissioner Jeong Eunkyeong said. The current outbreak has likely peaked and is expected to trend downward Jeong said citing expert studies. But new cases in South Korea will likely drop slowly because of relaxed social distancing rules an expansion of inperson school classes and rising infections due to the coronavirus mutant widely known as stealth omicron she said. https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-south-korea-fafc781bfbb30618c2ee992c9481d3ca 28th Mar 2022

Coronavirus Resurgence

Reuters Hong Kong reported 7685 new COVID19 cases on Monday down slightly from the previous day as infections in the global financial hub gradually stabilise and the government eases some coronavirus restrictions. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/hong-kong-reports-more-than-7685-new-covid-cases-2022-03-28/ 27th Mar 2022

New Lockdown

Reuters Chinas financial hub of Shanghai launched a twostage lockdown of its 26 million people on Monday closing bridges and tunnels and restricting highway traffic in a scramble to contain surging COVID19 cases. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-shanghai/chinas-shanghai-launches-two-phase-lockdown-as-covid-surges-idUSKCN2LP00D 28th Mar 2022

New Lockdown

Reuters Chinas financial hub of Shanghai launched a twostage lockdown of its 26 million residents on Monday closing bridges and tunnels and restricting highway traffic in a scramble to contain surging COVID19 cases. The snap lockdown announced by the local government late on Sunday will split Chinas most populous city roughly along the Huangpu River for nine days to allow for staggered testing by healthcare workers in white hazmat suits. It is the biggest COVIDrelated disruption to hit Shanghai and sent prices of commodities including oil and copper lower on fears that any further curbs could hurt demand in China the worlds secondlargest economy https://www.reuters.com/world/china/shanghai-reports-record-asymptomatic-covid-cases-lockdowns-begin-2022-03-28/ 28th Mar 2022