Category: Feature Stories

Belgium has registered a first case with the new Corona variant B.1.1.529, now got the name Omikron, first detected in southern Africa. The announcement was made by Belgian Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke at a press conference Friday. Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo also announced travel restrictions for people entering the country from countries in southern Africa. Caution is needed, but not panic, Vandenbroucke said. At the same time, Belgium is reintroducing stricter rules for private parties, in the hospitality industry and nightlife. “The situation today is worse than all…

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Currently available Corona vaccines are “almost certainly” less effective against the new B.1.1.529 variant discovered in southern Africa, according to a British expert, James Naismith, professor of structural biology at Oxford University, told the BBC 4 Today radio program on Friday. He added that it is not yet possible to say with certainty whether the variant is also more easily transmissible, based on the available data. “We suspect it is, and there is some early data,” Naismith continued. If easier transmissibility is confirmed, it is inevitable that the variant will…

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The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that CoV vaccinations have saved the lives of at least half a million people in Europe alone. The WHO’s Copenhagen-based European office released a report yesterday that said a total of 470,000 lives have been saved in the over-60 age group alone in about 30 European countries since the vaccination campaign began. The estimate does not include the under-60 age group. The survey published by WHO draws on data from more than half of the 53 countries in the European Region. Based on these…

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The B.1.1.529 variant was first detected in Botswana. Six cases have also been detected in South Africa According to scientists, there is a new covid variant that has an “extremely high number” of mutations and can trigger further waves of disease by evading the body’s defense mechanisms. Only 10 cases in 3 countries have been confirmed by genome sequencing, but the variant has caused great concern among some researchers because a number of mutations could help the virus evade immunity. Variant B.1.1.529 has 32 mutations in the spike protein, the…

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“Vaccines save lives, but they do not completely prevent transmission.” This was said by the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, in the context of new findings around the effect of CoV vaccination in relation to the highly contagious CoV delta variant. Accordingly, according to the WHO chief, “the data suggest that transmission was reduced by about 60 percent by the vaccines before the emergence of the delta variant. With Delta, that figure has dropped to about 40 percent.” For that reason, he said, there is…

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Hundreds of thousands more people in Europe could die in connection with Covid 19 disease by spring 2022, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The WHO expects extreme strains on hospitals in large parts of Europe. The organization also stressed Tuesday that in addition to vaccination, hygiene and spacing rules must remain part of everyday life in the long term. Intensive care units in 49 of 53 countries in the region are expected to face a high or extreme burden between Tuesday and March 1 next year, WHO Europe…

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A vacation in an Austrian hotel is currently not allowed. Travel abroad is still possible, including skiing. The most important points. A vacation in a hotel or apartment in Austria is not allowed. There is a ban on entering lodging establishments (including campsites), but spa guests or business travelers, for example, are exempted from this ban. Airbnb is also not allowed, according to the responsible ministry. Already in a hotelThose who have already started their vacation and are currently staying in a hotel, guesthouse or other lodging establishment are exempt…

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Last week, more than 650,000 people in Austria were vaccinated against coronavirus – more than ever before. However, first-time vaccinations accounted for only a good 100,000 of these; the majority were booster vaccinations.In Austria, more people were vaccinated against Covid-19 last week than ever before. However, the record figure is mainly due to booster vaccinations. First-time vaccinations, on the other hand, declined again after a sharp increase since mid-October. A total of 653,750 people were vaccinated last week, including 107,465 first-time shots. By comparison, the previous record from the second…

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The European Commission granted marketing authorizations for Roche Registration GmbH’s Ronapreve (casirivimab/imdevimab) monoclonal antibody on Nov. 12, 2021. Ronapreve is one of the SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies. It is one of the first monoclonal antibodies for COVID-19 therapy to receive approval from the European Commission. Ronapreve is a drug for the treatment of COVID-19 in adults and adolescents (12 years of age or older and weighing at least 40 kilograms) who do not require supplemental oxygen and are at increased risk for severe progression of their disease. The drug consists of…

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