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People sit in a restaurant on the roof of the Selfridges department store on Oxford street, as the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions ease
REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
An estimated one in 480 people in England had covid-19 in the week up to 10 April
Coronavirus infections in England have fallen to their lowest level since September, according to the latest results of a random swab testing survey by the Office for National Statistics. An estimated one in 480 people in communities in England had covid-19 in the week up to 10 April, down from about one in 340 the previous week. It is the lowest prevalence rate recorded since the week up to 24 September, during which an estimated one in 500 people had covid-19. Equivalent prevalence estimates for Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales were one in 500, one in 710 and one in 920 people, respectively, during the week up to 10 April.
These numbers for England are “encouraging”, said James Naismith at the University of Oxford in a statement. “The lockdown has worked as expected as has the vaccination campaign,” he said, adding that robust testing and sequencing to identify coronavirus variant cases remain vital.
A total of 77 cases of a new coronavirus variant first detected in India were recorded in the UK as of 14 April, according to Public Health England. The new variant, called B.1.617, contains two types of mutation, each of which have been found separately in other coronavirus variants. These mutations may make the variant more infectious and boost its ability to escape the body’s immune responses.
Other coronavirus news
The world is seeing a “worrying” rise in coronavirus infections, World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on 16 April. “Globally, the number of new cases per week has nearly doubled over the past two months. This is approaching the highest rate of infection that we have seen so far during the pandemic,” he said at a briefing. More than 139.2 million coronavirus cases have been confirmed worldwide since the start of the pandemic, with the global covid-19 death toll approaching 3 million, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Pfizer’s CEO, Albert Bourla, has said it is likely that people will need a third covid-19 vaccine dose within six to 12 months after they are first vaccinated, with a requirement for annual jabs also a possibility. “Variants will play a key role,” he said.
Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel urged lawmakers on 16 April to approve new powers that would enable her to impose coronavirus lockdowns and curfews on areas with high infection rates. Daily new case numbers in Germany are rapidly approaching those seen during the peak of its second wave in January.
Coronavirus deaths
The worldwide covid-19 death toll has passed 2.98 million. The number of confirmed cases is more than 139.2 million, according to Johns Hopkins University, though the true number of cases will be much higher. According to Our World In Data, more than 478.1 million people globally have received at least one dose of a covid-19 vaccine.
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Covid-19: The story of a pandemic
New Scientist Weekly features updates and analysis on the latest developments in the covid-19 pandemic. Our podcast sees expert journalists from the magazine discuss the biggest science stories to hit the headlines each week – from technology and space, to health and the environment.
The Jump is a BBC radio 4 series exploring how viruses can cross from animals into humans to cause pandemics. The first episode examines the origins of the covid-19 pandemic.
Why Is Covid Killing People of Colour? is a BBC documentary, which investigates what the high covid-19 death rates in ethnic minority patients reveal about health inequality in the UK.
Panorama: The Race for a Vaccine is a BBC documentary about the inside story of the development of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine against covid-19.
Race Against the Virus: Hunt for a Vaccine is a Channel 4 documentary which tells the story of the coronavirus pandemic through the eyes of the scientists on the frontline.
The New York Times is assessing the progress in development of potential drug treatments for covid-19, and ranking them for effectiveness and safety.
Humans of COVID-19 is a project highlighting the experiences of key workers on the frontline in the fight against coronavirus in the UK, through social media.
Belly Mujinga: Searching for the Truth is a BBC Panorama investigation of the death of transport worker Belly Mujinga from covid-19, following reports she had been coughed and spat on by a customer at London’s Victoria Station.
Coronavirus, Explained on Netflix is a short documentary series examining the coronavirus pandemic, the efforts to fight it and ways to manage its mental health toll.
COVID-19: The Pandemic that Never Should Have Happened, and How to Stop the Next One by Debora Mackenzie is about how the pandemic happened and why it will happen again if we don’t do things differently in future.
The Rules of Contagion is about the new science of contagion and the surprising ways it shapes our lives and behaviour. The author, Adam Kucharski, is an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK, and in the book he examines how diseases spread and why they stop.
Virus Outbreak Tokyo Olympics, Suita, Japan – 14 Apr 2021 The last Olympic torch relay runner for the Osaka leg concludes the event in Suita, north of Osaka, western Japan
Hiro Komae/AP/Shutterstock
As Japan battles fourth wave of infections, official says cancelling the Olympics is still an option
An official from Japan’s ruling party has said that cancelling the Olympics, scheduled to take place in Tokyo at the end of July, remains an option and will depend on the coronavirus situation. “If it seems impossible [to host the Olympics] anymore, then we have to stop it, decisively,” Toshihiro Nikai, a member of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party, told broadcaster TBS. He added: “If the Olympics were to spread infection, then what are the Olympics for?” Government and organising officials have previously said the postponed event would go ahead, but without international spectators.
The fresh doubts about hosting the Olympics come as Japan is grappling with a fourth wave of coronavirus infections. Japan’s western region of Osaka reported a record daily increase of 1099 infections on 13 April, with the surge thought to be driven largely by the B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant first identified in the UK. “The situation, with pressure on hospital beds, is severe. I have a strong sense of crisis about it,” Japan’s economy minister, Yasutoshi Nishimura, who is overseeing the country’s pandemic response, told Reuters.
Other coronavirus news
Approximately 4.7 million people were waiting for routine operations and procedures in England in February, which is the highest number since 2007, according to NHS England figures. Almost 388,000 people had been waiting for more than a year for a non-urgent surgery compared with just 1600 people before the pandemic. “We’re going to make sure that we give the NHS all the funding that it needs – as we’ve done throughout the pandemic – to beat the backlog,” said UK prime minister Boris Johnson during a visit to Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth on 15 April. NHS England recently announced a £1 billion fund to go towards helping trusts to restore operations and other services.
The number of positive coronavirus tests in England fell by 34 per cent in the week up to 7 April, according to the latest figures from NHS Test and Trace. 19,196 people tested positive for the virus, continuing a downward trend in positive tests observed since the week up to 6 January, NHS Test and Trace said in its report.
Mass testing for the B.1.351 coronavirus variant, first identified in South Africa, is being carried out in six London boroughs as well as in parts of Smethwick in the West Midlands in England, after a new case was detected there.
More than 200,000 new coronavirus cases were reported in India on 15 April, the highest daily case rate in the country since the pandemic began. Some hospitals, including those in the state of Maharashtra, have reported shortages of beds and oxygen supplies. India’s second wave of infections appears to be driven mainly by the more transmissible B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant.
Coronavirus deaths
The worldwide covid-19 death toll has passed 2.97 million. The number of confirmed cases is more than 138.4 million, according to Johns Hopkins University, though the true number of cases will be much higher. According to Our World In Data, more than 468 million people globally have received at least one dose of a covid-19 vaccine.
Bizarre face mask: A face mask made from cow pat, plus Britishisms vs Americanisms and four-dimensional urban hyperspace, in Feedback’s weird weekly round-up. Feedback is New Scientist’s weekly column of bizarre stories, implausible advertising claims, confusing instructions and more.
People rest in the waiting area after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at a vaccination centre in Salisbury Cathedral
NEIL HALL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
A single dose of Pfizer or AstraZeneca covid-19 vaccine produced strong immune responses among over-80s in a preliminary study
Both the Pfizer/BioNTech and Oxford/AstraZeneca covid-19 vaccines produced a strong immune response after a single dose in people aged over 80 in a preliminary study. It showed that 93 per cent of people had produced coronavirus-specific antibodies after receiving the Pfizer vaccine and 87 per cent of people after receiving the AstraZeneca jab. This was the first study to compare the performance of the two vaccines.
Those who received the AstraZeneca vaccine showed a greater T-cell response, which forms another important arm of the body’s immune response to viruses. Just 12 per cent of people who had the Pfizer vaccine developed T-cells against the coronavirus spike protein compared with 31 per cent of those who had received the AstraZeneca jab.
Overall immune responses were much higher in people who had previously had covid-19, compared with those who hadn’t. The study was carried out by Helen Parry at the University of Birmingham, UK, and her colleagues who analysed immune responses in a group of 165 volunteers aged 80 and over, each of whom had received a single dose of either the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccine five to six weeks earlier.
Other coronavirus news
The US, the European Union and South Africa are pausing rollouts of the Johnson & Johnson covid-19 vaccine, following a small number of reports of rare blood clots in people who had received it. In the US, six cases of rare blood clots had been reported among 6.8 million people who had received the vaccine as of 13 April. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said it is working closely with the US Food and Drug Administration and other international regulators to investigate all the cases reported and it expects to issue a recommendation next week. “While its review is ongoing, EMA remains of the view that the benefits of the vaccine in preventing COVID-19 outweigh the risks of side effects,” it said in a statement on 14 April.
Denmark has become the first country to completely stop using the AstraZeneca vaccine, after the EMA concluded on 7 April that unusual blood clotting events should be listed as very rare side effects of the vaccine. However, the country’s health agency has not ruled out the possibility of resuming use of the vaccine in future if another wave of infections hits. Several European countries suspended use of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in March over blood clot concerns, but many have since resumed use of the vaccine for certain age groups.
About half of people in the UK may have antibodies against the coronavirus. An estimated 54.9 per cent of people in England had antibodies against the coronavirus in the week up to 28 March, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The equivalent proportions for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland were 46 per cent, 49.1 per cent and 54.5 per cent, respectively. “There is a clear pattern between vaccination and testing positive for COVID-19 antibodies but the detection of antibodies alone is not a precise measure of the immunity protection given by vaccination,” the ONS said in its report.
Coronavirus deaths
The worldwide covid-19 death toll has passed 2.96 million. The number of confirmed cases is more than 137.5 million, according to Johns Hopkins University, though the true number of cases will be much higher. According to Our World In Data, more than 459.7 million people globally have received at least one dose of a covid-19 vaccine.
Back to the office: Returning to work in offices brings concerns over office socialising and using public transport, but working together brings mental health benefits too.
Staying safe indoors: Good ventilation is one of the most effective measures offices can take to stop the spread of coronavirus, while relying on people to change their behaviour should be a last resort.
Rare clot concerns: Johnson & Johnson covid-19 vaccines have been paused in the US after rare reports of blood clots, similar to those linked with the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine in other countries. Could the cause of the clots be the same?
India’s second wave: India’s daily coronavirus cases are currently the highest in the world, with modelling suggesting the country’s total tally could be close to 450 million.
See previous updates from March 2021, February 2021, January 2021, November/December 2020, and March to November 2020.
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