China may be able to launch a vaccine against SARS-Cov-2 by the end of the year, a Chinese government agency announced on social media on Saturday.
The vaccine - developed by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products and the Institute of Virology - was administered to more than 2,000 people in phase 2 clinical trials, the Public Asset Management and Supervision Commission (SASAC) said.
According to a message dated May 29, broadcast on the Chinese social network WeChat, the vaccine could be marketed as early as the end of this year or at the beginning of 2021.
The two institutes that developed the vaccine have links to the Sinopharm pharmaceutical group, which in turn is controlled by SASAC.
According to SASAC, the Beijing Institute of Biological Products is able to produce 100-120 million doses per year.
Five vaccines are currently being tested on humans in China.
The pandemic that took over 250,000 lives in just four months and contaminated over 3.7 million earthlings turned everything upside down! On Monday, May 4, schools in Germany opened their doors. But the traditional noise during breaks did not resound in the hallways. The children obeyed the rules imposed by the COVID-19 terror.
Before the pandemic, school and high school courtyards resounded with the merry laughter of children. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has ordered schools and high schools to open on May 4, after closing their doors in early March.
But the children discovered a rigid environment, in which the rules imposed by the measures to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus put play, jokes and childhood in the background. The 10th grade students at the Schillerschule in Ettlingen have been preparing for exams since last week. On Monday, May 4, the little ones from the gymnasium and primary school also showed up at the same school.
The hallways of the school were marked with yellow stripes and posters with strict instructions were mounted on the walls: keeping a distance of 1.5 meters, using face masks, gloves and regular hand washing.
According to Deutsche Welle, only children in the final grades were able to go to school on May 4, to avoid the congestion of educational institutions. The benches for two students were used for one child and the whole school is subjected to a strict disinfection ritual performed at three key times of the day: in the morning, at noon, between shifts and in the evening. At the entrance to the classrooms, pumps with alcohol-based disinfectants were installed.
The fear in the souls of parents who send their children to school is indescribable. And in China, primary and secondary schools opened their doors on April 27. Even high school students were able to return to campuses on April 27, and students will resume classes on May 11. The rules for distancing and preventing the spread of the new coronavirus are strictly observed. In primary school, parents made children's one meter long sticks to be worn as "wings" on the back that would force other classmates not to get closer than a meter.
The capital of China, on alert after the discovery of the first cases of COVID-19 in the last two months
Beijing closed two markets on Friday and postponed resumption of primary school classes following the discovery of three new cases of COVID-19 in the city after two months in which no new cases of coronavirus were confirmed in the Chinese capital.
The first country affected by the new coronavirus at the end of last year, China has meanwhile managed to slow down the epidemic considerably, with only a few new cases of disease being reported daily in recent weeks, most of them among people returning from abroad.
But a case of COVID-19 of unknown origin was confirmed in Beijing on Thursday, followed by two more on Friday. The last case of COVID-19 confirmed before them dates from mid-April. From the beginning of the epidemic until then, a total of 597 cases of COVID-19 and 9 deaths have been confirmed in Beijing, agerpres.ro reports.
The last two contaminated people are employees of the Meat Research Center. One of them had recently visited the eastern city of Qingdao. Two markets in Beijing where these two people were were completely or partially closed on Friday and will be disinfected.
Authorities also decided to postpone the resumption of schooling for three primary classes until an indefinite date, after it was initially agreed that schools would reopen on Monday. Pupils in the Chinese capital have gradually returned to school since the end of April, after three months of forced vacation and distance learning.
China seems to be hit by a new wave of coronavirus. People in the northeast of the country can only leave the house for strictly necessary shopping. This time it would be a form of the virus that has mutated. The symptoms of the infection appear later and the disease is more difficult to cure. Authorities imposed containment measures on the affected area.
Chinese officials have imposed quarantine restrictions on two cities in northeast China's Jilin province. Jilin is part of a larger province in the Dongbei region - home to more than 100 million people. Health authorities have raised the alert in the area, writes express.co.uk.
About 40,000 residents of Jilin and Shulan were tested for coronavirus after officials were alerted to a possible new outbreak.
In Jilin, authorities stopped all major transport links to and from neighboring cities until further notice. In Shulan, all villages and residential complexes were closed after a similar outbreak of COVID-19 cases last week.
Residents are allowed to leave their homes only for essential reasons, but not more than two hours, once every two days. However, delivery services have been largely shut down, and anti-fever drugs are banned from pharmacies to prevent people from hiding their symptoms.
Schools, public places and public transport have been closed. Children can only play outside if they wear masks, and health care workers have returned to protective equipment, writes Bloomberg.
Strict measures have raised concerns, as people believed the nation's worst epidemic was over. The fear spread to nearby areas, although no cases have been officially reported in those places.
The virus in the new outbreak has mutated
The new virus that hit northeast China is behaving differently from the one in Wuhan, and researchers say it has undergone mutations. Patients in China's new outbreaks appear to be carrying the virus for a longer period of time and need a longer recovery time. In addition, the symptoms of the disease are felt more than two weeks after infection, say Chinese specialists, which makes it difficult to detect new cases.
However, it seems that patients rarely have a fever, and the virus affects only the lungs, not the other organs as is the case with the form discovered in Wuhan. Moreover, it is believed that the new form of coronavirus is actually exported from abroad, the analysis of the strain of the new form of the virus resembling that of Russia.
You can’t find a protective mask in pharmacies or it’s price is hitting you? If you want to protect yourself, a mask to cover the mouth and nose can be made at home. However, a textile mask is not as effective as a surgical one, but it is very useful during this period. If you do not know how to sew, with a scissors, a piece of material and two hair bands you can make a protective mask.
The American Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) has reverted to previous recommendations made in the context of the pandemic and currently believes that wearing simple masks in textiles could slow the spread of coronavirus.
Instructions for making your home a protective mask
The material used should be cut in such a way that it is wide and long enough to cover your nose and mouth
The material should be bent at length.
At each end tie a hair elastic.
Bring the ends tied inwards.
Arrange the mask near the mouth and nose and fasten the elastics behind the ears.
It is important to know:
•Simple surgical masks have a much higher protection than textiles.
• Even if we wear a mask, we must keep at least 3 steps away from the others.
•We disinfect / wash our hands before and after putting on our masks and do not touch them when wearing them.
•After each use, the textile masks must be washed: a washing machine is sufficient.
•Such textile masks are especially useful in places where physical distance is difficult to maintain: queues, small shops or pharmacies, crowded means of transport, etc.
• This recommendation can be used as an additional public health measure.
• The CDC emphasizes that textile masks should not be worn by children under 2 years of age or by persons with respiratory problems.
• The materials from which the textile masks are made do not sufficiently protect the hospital environment.
•The World Health Organization strongly recommends wearing surgical masks or special protective masks in the hospital environment.
An Italian priest infected with coronavirus gave up his respirator which his parishioners bought for him to a younger patient — and then died from the deadly virus.
Giuseppe Berardelli, the main priest in the town of Casnigo, died last week in Lovere hospital, after he refused to take the respirator after finding out the other younger patient, who was a complete stranger, also needed it.
He was one of at least 60 priests who died in Italy this month as the European nation was the epicenter of the deadly pandemic and suffered the biggest amount of deaths, while having the oldest population in Europe.
People living in Casnigo were reported to have applauded from their windows and balconies as the coffin was taken for burial. There was no funeral, but people tried their best to express their regrets and love.
On Tuesday, Pope Francis led a prayer for the deceased doctors and priests, "thanking God for their heroic example in serving those who were sick".
Italy has 63,927 people with Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. So far it has reported 6,077 deaths and 7,432 people who have been discharged from hospital after recovering.