Category: General Interest

In light of the omicron variant, an increasing number of countries are tightening entry regulations. France restricts entry from Great Britain, Israel’s borders remain closed to tourists. Meanwhile, the EU states were only able to reach a minimal compromise at their summit in Brussels – new requirements for travelers are not ruled out. Britain is struggling with two CoV variants at the moment: The number of delta cases remains high, that of omicron cases is growing rapidly. On Thursday, almost 90,000 new infections were reported within 24 hours, a new…

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The World Health Organization’s (WHO) European office is appealing for caution during the Christmas holidays in light of the pandemic situation. “If you plan to see friends and family, keep groups small and, if possible, take a test beforehand,” it said in a statement Thursday. Even those who are fully vaccinated should avoid crowded and confined places and wear a mask, it said. “We are dealing with two highly transmissible variants that have the potential to overwhelm our already overburdened health systems,” WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Henri Kluge…

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Omicron has numerous mutations compared to delta, which is also evident in other characteristics. A Chinese research team at Hong Kong University has now demonstrated that omicron replicates 70 times faster in the respiratory tract than delta. That may facilitate its spread from person to person, the researchers said. In lung tissue, however, Omicron replicates 10 times slower than the original version of the coronavirus and than the Delta variant, which could contribute to less severe disease. The large differences in the efficiency of Omicron’s replication could help predict the…

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In light of high Corona case numbers in Europe and the new virus variant Omikron, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has issued an urgent call to vaccinate. “The most important thing now is to continue to bring vaccination rates up in Europe as quickly as possible. And in all age groups, children included,” the German politician said Wednesday at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, APA reports. “The price we all pay in the meantime for too low vaccination rates is, after all, getting higher and higher.” That applies,…

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Two vaccinations with BioNtech/Pfizer’s Corona vaccine offer good protection against severe disease progression when infected with the Omicron variant, according to a South African study. “The double dose of Pfizer/BioNtech’s vaccine shows a 70 percent efficacy in reducing the risk of hospitalization,” the head of Discovery, the private health insurer involved in the study, Ryan Noach, said Tuesday. The study, which Discovery carried out with the South African Council for Medical Research (SAMRC), is based on samples from 78,000 PCR tests taken in South Africa between Nov. 15 and Dec.…

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The government’s pandemic task force added eight countries and territories on its “red list,” the most severe risk classification for COVID-19, effective December 16 until the end of the month, Malacañang announced Wednesday.  Countries included in the red list are: Andorra , France, Monaco, Northern Mariana Islands, Réunion, San Marino, South Africa, Switzerland  Acting presidential spokesperson Karlo Nograles during his regular briefing stressed that only Filipinos will be allowed to travel to the Philippines from “red list” areas.  Austria is included in the red list. These Filipinos must be returning home…

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Attention – since last weekend there is again a rapid increase in scam SMS, which pretend the imminent delivery of a package. Warning against SMS from fake parcel servicesIn the last five days, we have received more than 4,000 complaints in this regard,” informs Dr. Klaus M. Steinmaurer, RTR’s managing director for the Telecommunications and Postal Division, and explains: “The pre-Christmas season and lockdown are predestined for ordering parcels online. Many of us wait impatiently for our packages, are stressed and breathe a sigh of relief when we finally, finally…

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The Novavax vaccine NVX-CoV2373 is expected to receive its approval this week, according to the director general of public health. In a best-case scenario, that would make it available in Austria before the end of the year. Austrians should not wait for inactivated vaccinesKatharina Reich, director general for public health, expects the new NVX-CoV2373 protein vaccine from U.S. pharmaceutical company Novavax to be approved in the coming days and, in a best-case scenario, delivered to Austria before the end of December. “An additional vaccine will reach our portfolio very soon,”…

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Virologist Florian Krammer of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York is less optimistic about the initial data on the Omicron variant. “It is spreading rapidly” and appears to be a good escape variant, he said. “So it’s very likely that it will need an Omikron-specific booster.” However, he said, there is evidence that convalescents and double-vaccinated people are at least further protected against severe courses. Adapted booster for Krammer “very likely” neededIt looks like the new pathogen type may escape relatively well from an antibody…

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