16th Jun 2022 https://nfind.uk/lockdown_exit/index.php/newsletter=682 lockdown_exit

Lockdown Exit

South China Morning Post Try as Hong Kong might the number of daily Covid19 cases remains stubbornly high. In an effort to reduce them in time for celebrations of the citys 25th anniversary of its return to Chinese sovereignty on July 1 patrons of pubs bars and clubs are from Thursday required to show proof of a negative rapid antigen test RAT result. It is an understandable move given such places are behind half a dozen recent clusters in entertainment districts involving hundreds of people. Random raids by police of numerous premises have led to dozens of fines and temporary closures for the violation of rules. Authorities have opted for the RAT strategy rather than rolling back a phased reopening of social and economic activity. The last of three stages remains to be implemented but outgoing Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuetngor contends circumstances are not right for that to happen before July 1. https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3181852/hong-kong-rat-proof-nothing-get-hungover-about 16th Jun 2022

Lockdown Exit

Bloomberg Shanghai which reported just 16 Covid cases for Wednesday will conduct mass testing drives every weekend until the end of July in the latest display of the lengths authorities are going to in order to adhere to nations zero tolerance approach to the virus. A temporary lockdown will also be imposed on residential complexes where a Covid case is detected in the week leading up to the weekend testing Zhao Dandan an official with the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission said at a briefing Wednesday. The lockdown will be lifted once everyone in the compound has been tested he said. In an effort to detect cases early and break transmission chains the citys residents will need to take nucleic acid tests at least once a week until the end of July with workers at supermarkets barbers drugstores shopping malls and restaurants required to undergo daily testing. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-15/shanghai-to-mass-test-whole-city-every-weekend-up-to-end-of-july 16th Jun 2022

Lockdown Exit

Bloomberg Hong Kong reported more than 1000 new Covid19 cases on Wednesday the highest in two months with the rise in infections spurring officials to continue to tighten rules around who can isolate at home. There were 971 new local infections including many among school children their families and patrons of nightlife venues Department of Health official Albert Au said at the daily virus briefing. Another 76 infections were detected among travelers who recently entered the city bringing the total to 1047 the highest since April 14. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-15/hong-kong-covid-cases-top-1-000-as-home-isolation-tweaked-again 16th Jun 2022

Lockdown Exit

Bloomberg England is rolling out a pair of antibiotics from Pfizer Inc. and Shionogi Co. as part of a pioneering program aimed at stimulating a broken market and taking on the rising threat of superbugs. Under the deal announced Wednesday by the National Health Service the drug companies will receive a fixed annual fee for their antibiotics. The payments in the program the first of its kind will be as much as 10 million 12 million a year for up to 10 years. About 1700 patients a year with severe bacterial infections will be eligible for the drugs. With germs becoming increasingly resistant to current antibiotics the NHS said the drugs will provide a lifeline to patients with lifethreatening infections like sepsis or hospital or ventilator pneumonia. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-15/uk-to-roll-out-drugs-from-pfizer-shionogi-to-fight-superbugs 15th Jun 2022

Lockdown Exit

The Conversation Two years ago this week the Recovery trial transformed the care of COVID patients with its dexamethasone announcement. Within four hours the steroid was included in NHS treatment recommendations. Almost overnight treatment of COVID patients around the world changed completely. It has been estimated that dexamethasone may have saved a million lives in the first nine months following the announcement. Recovery jointly led by Oxford Population Health and the Nuffield Department of Medicine is a groundbreaking scientific machine which from the outset moved at unprecedented speed. Within 15 days more than 1000 participants around the UK had joined the trial five weeks later that number had risen to 10000. In the first 100 days alone the trial produced three groundbreaking results that would completely reshape COVID care. https://theconversation.com/the-inside-story-of-recovery-how-the-worlds-largest-covid-19-trial-transformed-treatment-and-what-it-could-do-for-other-diseases-184772 15th Jun 2022

Lockdown Exit

Healthcare IT News In 2021 the European Commission Parliament and Council gave the EMA greater tools enabling it to both support innovation and respond to emergencies in an acknowledgement of the agencys vital role in tackling the pandemic. The EMA approved five treatments and four new vaccines against COVID19. It also passed regulation on medical devicesa year later than planned because of the pandemicand took steps towards developing an information network designed to generate data about health patterns across the continent called the Data Analysis and Real World Interrogation Network DARWIN EU. https://www.healthcareitnews.com/news/emea/europe-s-medicines-watchdog-publishes-new-report-identifying-covid-19-lessons-learned 15th Jun 2022

Lockdown Exit

South China Morning Post The authorities in the Chinese capital say the Heaven Supermarket bar in the Sanlitun nightlife district did not enforce controls properly. The Covid cluster which has been linked with 320 cases is the latest outbreak linked to bars stretching from Hong Kong to Beijing. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3181783/bar-centre-latest-beijing-covid-cluster-loses-its-licence-staff 15th Jun 2022

Lockdown Exit

Bangkok Post The country registered 17 more Covid19 fatalities and 2153 new cases during the previous 24 hours the Public Health Ministry announced on Thursday morning. This compared with the 18 coronavirusrelated fatalities and 2263 new cases reported on Monday morning. https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2327498/2-153-new-covid-cases-17-more-deaths 15th Jun 2022

Lockdown Exit

Nature virologist Sissy Sonnleitner tracks nearly every COVID19 case in Austrias rugged eastern Tyrol region. So when one woman there kept testing positive for months on end Sonnleitner was determined to work out what was going on. Before becoming infected with SARSCoV2 in late 2020 the woman who was in her 60s had been taking immunesuppressing drugs to treat a lymphoma relapse. The COVID19 infection lingered for more than seven months causing relatively mild symptoms including fatigue and a cough. Sonnleitner who is based at a microbiology facility in Auervillgraten Austria and her colleagues collected more than two dozen viral samples from the woman over time and found through genetic sequencing that it had picked up about 22 mutations see Tracking spikes evolution. Roughly half of them would be seen again in the heavily mutated Omicron variants of SARSCoV2 that surged around the globe months later1. When Omicron was found we had a great moment of surprise Sonnleitner says. We already had those mutations in our variant. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01613-2 15th Jun 2022

Lockdown Exit

Bloomberg Given that you have to be unable to work for at least 12 months to qualify for Social Security disability and going on the program is a momentous step that effectively requires leaving the labor market the stillnew phenomenon that is Long Covid is probably not playing a big role the Social Security Administration has said that only about 1 of recent claims mention Covid. Still the turnaround in disability applications is at least not incompatible with a rise in longterm health problems related to the disease and it turns out there are stronger signs of Long Covid in other employmentrelated data. https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-06-15/long-covid-is-showing-up-in-the-employment-data 15th Jun 2022

Exit Strategies

Arab News The Ministry of Hajj and Umrah said that full immunization with one of the approved COVID19 vaccines is still required for those planning to perform Hajj this year. The confirmation comes less than 24 hours after the Saudi authorities announced the lifting of various COVID19 preventative measures including the requirement to wear face masks in closed places. The ministry reaffirmed that all those intending to perform Hajj this year must have completed their immunization program with one of the COVID19 vaccines approved by the Public Health Authority. This vaccine requirement is listed on the electronic registration portal for this years Hajj which will accommodate 1 million pilgrims. https://www.arabnews.com/node/2103141/saudi-arabia 15th Jun 2022

Exit Strategies

FiercePharma Last month in response to a decrease in demand Pfizer and its COVID19 vaccine partner BioNTech agreed to delay supplies of their shot to the European Union. Jabs due to be shipped from June to August would instead be sent in September and the fourth quarter. Now four weeks later the bloc is putting heat on Pfizer to further restrict supplies Reuters reports. This move comes two weeks after the EU reached an agreement with Moderna to postpone its scheduled delivery of COVID19 vaccines. Responding to a request for comment a Pfizer spokesperson referenced a previous statement it issued following last months agreement with the EU. https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/pfizer-already-agreed-delay-supply-covid-19-shots-eu-now-bloc-wants-more 15th Jun 2022

Exit Strategies

The Wall Street Journal Health experts advising U.S. health regulators backed giving Covid19 vaccines from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE and from Moderna Inc. to children as young as 6 months old. The panel voted 21 to 0 in a pair of votes on Wednesday in support of expanding access to the vaccines. The positive recommendations will likely lead soon to expanding the U.S. Covid19 vaccination campaign to the 19.6 million children from 6 months to under 5 years of age one of the last groups of people in the U.S. waiting for shots. The Food and Drug Administration which doesnt have to follow the panels recommendations but usually does is expected to authorize the shots within days. Vaccinations could begin as early as June 21 according to the Biden administration. https://www.wsj.com/articles/fda-advisers-to-review-pfizer-moderna-covid-19-vaccines-in-young-children-11655285401 15th Jun 2022

Exit Strategies

PMLiVE Pressure on COVID19 vaccine manufacturers is being mounted as European Union EU governments are in a push to renegotiate contracts with a caution issued by EU officials that millions of vaccine doses could be wasted. When vaccines became available earlier in the COVID19 pandemic countries vied for supply contracts. However as the need for vaccines begins to slow in Europe some countries want to amend their contracts to reduce spending and to prevent receiving more vaccines than are needed. During the most acute phase of the pandemic the European Commission and EU governments agreed to buy huge volumes of vaccines mostly from Pfizer and its partner BioNTech amid fears of insufficient supplies https://www.pmlive.com/pharma_news/eu_governments_pressure_manufacturers_to_renegotiate_contracts_for_covid-19_vaccines_1449983 15th Jun 2022

Exit Strategies

VOA Asia As North Korea faces a rising number of COVID19 cases simply having vaccines may be insufficient to roll out a countrywide immunization process that experts say needs to be accompanied by adequate cold storage units and trained medical and technical staff that the nation lacks. Pyongyang announced on Tuesday that more than 32810 fevered cases were detected in the country from June 12 to 13 through its state media Korea Central News Agency KCNA. The total since late April surged past 4.5 million as of June 14 added the KCNA. https://www.voanews.com/a/challenges-face-north-korea-covid-19-vaccination-/6618124.html 15th Jun 2022

Exit Strategies

Reuters Britain one of the main opponents to waiving intellectual property rights for COVID19 vaccines praised a draft agreement and expressed hope a deal would be reached at the World Trade Organization WTO this week. India South Africa and other developing countries have sought a waiver of IP rights for vaccines treatments and diagnostics for over a year but faced opposition from countries with major pharmaceutical producers such as the United Kingdom and Switzerland. https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/wto-draft-ip-deal-covid-vaccines-very-good-uk-minister-2022-06-14/ 15th Jun 2022

Exit Strategies

Reuters Advisers to the U.S Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday unanimously recommended the agency authorize COVID19 vaccines from Moderna Inc and Pfizer IncBioNTech SE for millions of the youngest American children. The committees recommendation is an important step toward immunizing children under the age of 5 and as young as 6 months old who have not yet been eligible for the shots. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/us-fda-panel-weighs-covid-vaccines-children-young-6-months-2022-06-15/ 15th Jun 2022

Exit Strategies

FiercePharma Pfizers Paxlovid has proven useful in COVID19 patients at high risk of severe disease. But the antiviral drug may not help less vulnerable patients. Pfizer has stopped enrollment into the EPICSR trial thats been evaluating Paxlovid in standardrisk patients the company said Tuesday. These include unvaccinated adults without additional risk and vaccinated people who have at least one risk factor for progressing to severe disease. The clinical trial previously flopped on its primary goal showing the Pfizer antiviral was no better than placebo at sustaining symptom relief for four consecutive days. Now the company is calling it quits on the study after finding it hard to read any signs of potential benefit because of an already low rate of hospitalization or death in the standardrisk population. https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/pfizer-stops-paxlovid-work-less-vulnerable-covid-19-patients-after-no-benefit-symptom-relief 15th Jun 2022

Partisan Exits

The Hill on MSN.com Anthony Fauci the governments top infectious disease expert tested positive for COVID19 on Wednesday but is experiencing mild symptoms the NationalInstitutesof Health NIH said. He is fully vaccinated and has been boosted twice the agency said. He is currently experiencing mild symptoms. Dr. Fauci will isolate and continue to work from his home. He has not recently been in close contact with President Biden or other senior government officials. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/fauci-tests-positive-for-covid-19/ar-AAYvuoQ 15th Jun 2022

Partisan Exits

Hong Kong Free Press The head of the Hong Kong Police Force has defended officers enforcement of Covid19 rules while attending a district council meeting on Tuesday. After the meeting Commissioner of Police Raymond Siu told the press that the Force would reach total mobilisation for the 25 anniversary of the citys handover to China and that a new counterterrorism reporting hotline had already received more than 1000 calls. Siu attended the North District Council meeting to brief councillors on crime data in the district. He was also asked to explain the relationship between police enforcement actions and control of the disease and the effectiveness of antiepidemic work in the North District according to the meetings agenda. https://hongkongfp.com/2022/06/15/hong-kong-police-chief-defends-enforcement-of-covid-19-rules/ 15th Jun 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

The Wall Street Journal Moderna Inc. is planning to test its Covid19 vaccine in babies 3 months to 6 months old the youngest age group studied to date. The Cambridge Mass. company said Wednesday it is in the final stages of planning the study to be called BabyCove and expected to begin enrolling as many as 700 babies in September. BabyCove would be the first study of Modernas vaccine in infants younger than 6 months. Modernas vaccine is authorized for use in adults 18 and older. The company has requested expanding the vaccines use to children ages 6 months through 17 years and a decision by the Food and Drug Administration on that request could come within days. https://www.wsj.com/articles/moderna-to-study-its-covid-19-vaccine-in-babies-as-young-as-3-months-11655319036 15th Jun 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

Bloomberg The World Health Organization will hold an emergency meeting to assess whether the current spread of monkeypox constitutes a public health emergency of international concern or PHEIC. A special committee will meet next week to advise on the spread in nonendemic countries Hans Kluge regional director of the WHO for Europe said at a media briefing Wednesday. A PHEIC is the WHOs highest alert level and such a declaration can be used to encourage nations to cooperate on countermeasures while letting the agency recommend steps such as travel advisories. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-15/who-to-convene-emergency-meeting-on-monkeypox-amid-rising-spread 15th Jun 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

Business Standard Government advisory panel NTAGI will meet on Thursday to review data on Covaxin and Corbevax vaccines for the 612 age group and also deliberate on reducing the gap between the second and precaution doses from the current nine to six months. The National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation NTAGI will hold its meeting amid a fresh spike in COVID19 cases in the country. Currently those aged 12 years and above are vaccinated against COVID19. https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/ntagi-to-review-covaxin-corbevax-vaccine-data-for-6-12-years-on-thursday-122061500769_1.html 15th Jun 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

Business Standard With Omicron and its subvariants spreading rapidly across the globe vaccine makers have started claiming efficacy of their Covid19 vaccines against this SarsCoV2 variant. https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs/vaccine-makers-claims-efficacy-against-omicron-variant-of-covid-19-122061500934_1.html 15th Jun 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

The BMJ People infected with the omicron variant show poor immunity boosting against future covid19 infection researchers have found. This may explain why breakthrough and repeat infections have been a common feature of the omicron wave of the pandemic even among people who have been triple vaccinated said the research team. Omicron is an especially stealthy immune evader said Danny Altmann study coauthor from Imperial College London. Not only can it break through vaccine defences it looks to leave very few of the hallmarks wed expect on the immune system he said. Its more stealthy than previous variants and flies under the radar so the immune system is unable to remember it. https://www.bmj.com/content/377/bmj.o1474 15th Jun 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

FiercePharma Pfizers Paxlovid has proven useful in COVID19 patients at high risk of severe disease. But the antiviral drug may not help less vulnerable patients. Pfizer has stopped enrollment into the EPICSR trial thats been evaluating Paxlovid in standardrisk patients the company said Tuesday. These include unvaccinated adults without additional risk and vaccinated people who have at least one risk factor for progressing to severe disease. The clinical trial previously flopped on its primary goal showing the Pfizer antiviral was no better than placebo at sustaining symptom relief for four consecutive days. https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/pfizer-stops-paxlovid-work-less-vulnerable-covid-19-patients-after-no-benefit-symptom-relief 15th Jun 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

STAT News A panel of experts convened by the Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously Tuesday to recommend the agency authorize the Moderna Covid vaccine for children ages 6 to 17. The authorization would mirror the current emergency use authorization of the Covid vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech which is authorized for individuals 6 years and older. I believe this vote and I am happy to say it was unanimous is standing up for vulnerable populations that merit protection against this virus said Ofer Levy a member of the FDAs expert panel and director of the precision vaccines program at Boston Childrens Hospital. I believe this will provide families with an important option. https://www.statnews.com/2022/06/14/fda-panel-unanimously-backs-modernas-covid-vaccine-for-children-ages-6-to-17/ 15th Jun 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

STAT News Pfizer said Tuesday that a muchwatched study of its antiviral Paxlovid in patients who have Covid but dont have risk factors for severe disease failed to show a benefit in speeding alleviation of Covid symptoms but did seem to prevent doctors visits and hospitalizations. Additionally because of the small number of hospitalizations overall in the study it failed to produce a statistically significant finding on whether patients who had previously been vaccinated against Covid were hospitalized less often if they received Paxlovid. The data in no way invalidate earlier results that show that Paxlovid prevents hospitalizations and saves lives in patients at high risk of severe Covid. https://www.statnews.com/2022/06/14/pfizers-paxlovid-study-fails-to-answer-key-questions-over-benefit-for-broader-populations/ 15th Jun 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

New Scientist More than 1000 genes may contribute to a persons risk of developing severe covid19 on top of life circumstances such as their age ethnicity and any health conditions. Most of the genes discovered in a study of more than 1 million people affect the functioning of two kinds of immune cell. If the results are confirmed they could inform a test that assesses a persons risk of getting badly ill with covid19 says Johnathan CooperKnock at the University of Sheffield UK. We know there are young people who are otherwise fit that get severe covid he says. We are trying to get at the genetic determinants that put people at risk irrespective of the more obvious things. CooperKnocks team used artificial intelligence to analyse results from a global data set called the COVID19 Host Genetics Initiative a genetics project run by a group of researchers and companies. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2324296-severe-covid-19-symptoms-linked-to-more-than-1300-genetic-variants/ 14th Jun 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

The Guardian People who caught Covid during the first wave of the pandemic get no boost to their immune response if they subsequently catch Omicron a study of triple vaccinated people reports. Experts say that while three doses of a Covid jab help to protect individuals against severe outcomes should they catch Omicron previous infections can affect their immune response. If you were infected during the first wave then you cant boost your immune response if you have an Omicron infection said Prof Rosemary Boyton of Imperial College London a coauthor of the study. The team also found an Omicron infection offered little extra protection against catching the variant again. When Omicron started flying around the country people kept saying thats OK that will improve peoples immunity said Boyton. What were saying is its not a good booster of immunity. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/14/people-who-caught-covid-in-first-wave-get-no-immune-boost-from-omicron 14th Jun 2022

Scientific Viewpoint

Fortune Until recently its been nearly impossible to say. Immunity whether from vaccine or prior infection is thought to wane after three or four months but it varies by person. That knowledge is based on whats known about typical antibody responsebut antibodies are only half of the picture. The other half Tcell response which hasnt been examined in patients nearly as often owing to technical challenges. Now that response can be tested affordably and en masse researchers at Mount Sinai Health System in New York say. Along with researchers at DukeNUS Medical School in Singapore they developed a rapid blood test called the dqTACT assay that measures the activation of such cells in response to COVID. The test will allow for mass monitoring of the populations immunity and effectiveness of vaccines new and old they said in a study published Tuesday in Nature Biotechnology. https://fortune.com/2022/06/15/how-long-is-your-covid-vaccine-good-for-new-test-t-cell-antibody-mount-sinai-health-system-new-york/ 14th Jun 2022

Coronavirus Resurgence

Sky News Scientists tell Sky News that it is getting harder to predict how the UK will fare with different COVID variants because of immune imprinting which means everyones immune system reacts to them differently depending on their specific infection and vaccine history. https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-is-the-uk-on-the-brink-of-a-new-coronavirus-wave-and-should-we-be-worried-12634228 15th Jun 2022

Coronavirus Resurgence

BBC News Coronavirus cases are expected to increase in East Yorkshire over the coming weeks a council meeting heard. East Riding Councils Public Health Director Andy Kingdom said more people were getting coronavirus as their vaccine protection began to fade. He added that hospital admissions and deaths were expected to rise by midJuly but the size of the wave would be smaller than previous ones. The countys current infection rate is estimated at around 2. Were expecting more waves but they wont be as big because of our levels of immunity Mr Kingdom said. Infections are rising in workingage groups because they had their third jabs in around November and December so the effectiveness is beginning to wane. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-61802787 15th Jun 2022

Coronavirus Resurgence

New Zealand Herald Today there are 5554 new cases of Covid19 in the community says the Ministry of Health. The ministry is also reporting 11 virusrelated deaths and 368 people in hospital including seven in intensive care. Of todays deaths two were in their 60s five were in their 70s one in their 80s and three were aged over 90. The average age of those in northern regional hospitals is 61. Todays community cases are in Northland 138 Auckland 1659 Waikato 372 Bay of Plenty 194 Lakes 76 Hawkes Bay 179 MidCentral 223 Whanganui 54 Taranaki 188 Tairwhiti 46 Wairarapa 71 Capital and Coast 506 Hutt Valley 219 Nelson Marlborough 227 Canterbury 839 South Canterbury 76 Southern 442 West Coast 40 Unknown 5. There are also 70 new imported border cases. The ministry says they have been planning for a challenging winter. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-omicron-outbreak-latest-cases-as-auckland-trust-concerned-over-reinfections/N4VUFQAUZ7CHHFAAPMLVDHINN4/ 15th Jun 2022

Coronavirus Resurgence

Sky News New COVID data suggests that after months of declining case rates the number of people testing positive across the UK is starting to go up again. For the week ending 2 June the Office for National Statistics ONS said there were early signs of a possible increase in percentage of people testing positive for coronavirus. It was most noticeable in England and Northern Ireland where the positivity rate is one in every 70 people and one in every 65 people respectively. And it is being driven by new subvariants of Omicron BA.4 and BA.5. A separate Imperial College study released on Tuesday suggests that being infected with Omicron does not provide much immune protection from being reinfected. https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-is-the-uk-on-the-brink-of-a-new-coronavirus-wave-and-should-we-be-worried-12634228 15th Jun 2022

Coronavirus Resurgence

Reuters Chinas capital Beijing has reported a total of 327 COVID cases linked to a bar as of Wednesday afternoon a health official said. Beijing reported seven new local COVID cases on Wednesday up to 3 p.m. Liu Xiaofeng added. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/chinese-capital-has-reported-327-covid-cases-linked-bar-health-official-2022-06-15/ 15th Jun 2022

Coronavirus Resurgence

Reuters Hong Kong reported 1047 new COVID19 infections on Wednesday the first time the daily tally has topped 1000 since midApril as cases crept up ahead of celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the citys handover to mainland China. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/hong-kong-reports-1047-new-coronavirus-infections-2022-06-15/ 15th Jun 2022

Coronavirus Resurgence

Reuters Authorities in Chinas capital warned on Tuesday that a COVID19 surge in cases linked to a 24hour bar was critical and the city of 22 million was in a race against time to get to grips with its most serious outbreak since the pandemic began. The flareup means millions of people are facing mandatory testing and thousands are under targeted lockdowns just days after the city started to lift widespread curbs that had run for more than a month to tackle a broader outbreak since late April https://www.reuters.com/world/china/beijing-launches-probe-into-24-hour-bar-blamed-capitals-latest-covid-surge-2022-06-14/ 15th Jun 2022

Coronavirus Resurgence

Reuters The BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of Omicron are estimated to make up about 8.3 and 13.3 of the coronavirus variants in the United States as of June 11 the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC said on Tuesday. The two fastspreading sublineages were added to the World Health Organizations monitoring list in March and have also been designated as variants of concern in Europe. The European Unions disease prevention agency said on Monday the new subvariants are spreading more quickly than other variants which could lead to more hospitalizations and deaths as they become dominant in the continent. https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/omicron-sub-variants-ba4-ba5-account-21-covid-variants-us-cdc-2022-06-14/ 14th Jun 2022