Category: World

China has approved three coronavirus vaccines, including the one developed by Chinese military, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) for clinical trials

PTI

China has approved its third coronavirus vaccine for the second phase of clinical trials as it reported 12 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total number of infections in the country to 82,816.

China has approved three coronavirus vaccines, including the one developed by Chinese military, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) for clinical trials.

An “inactivated” vaccine developed by Wuhan Institute of Biological Products under the China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) and the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) started its clinical trials, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

An “inactivated” vaccine consists of virus particles, bacteria, or other pathogens that have been grown in culture and then lose disease producing capacity. In contrast, live vaccines use pathogens that are still alive.

WIV has been in the eye of the storm in recent weeks as U.S. President Donald Trump and top American officials alleged that the coronavirus may have escaped from there and demanded a probe into it. An official of the WIV denied it, terming the allegation “entirely based on speculation”.

A total of 96 persons in three age groups have received the vaccine in the first phase of clinical trial as of April 23. The vaccine has shown good safety results so far and vaccine receivers are still under observation, said the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm.

The randomised, double-blind and placebo-controlled clinical trials of the inactivated vaccine are conducted in Jiaozuo, central China’s Henan Province, and the second phase of clinical trial will focus on the vaccination procedure, it said.

The vaccine will also go through the third phase of the clinical trial, and it may take about one year to complete the clinical trial before finally reaching the conclusion on the vaccine’s safety and efficacy, it said.

China has approved three COVID-19 vaccine candidates for clinical trials.

An adenovirus vector vaccine, developed by Institute of Military Medicine under the Academy of Military Sciences, was the first to be approved to enter a clinical trial.

The first phase of the clinical trial was completed at the end of March, and the second phase started on April 12.

Meanwhile China’s National Health Commission, (NHC) said on Saturday that 12 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported in the country on Friday, of which 11 were imported.

The other one was domestically transmitted in Heilongjiang Province bordering Russia.

The death toll in the country remained at 4,632 people as no fatalities were reported due to coronavirus on Friday, it said.

The overall confirmed cases on the mainland had reached 82,816 by Friday, including 838 patients who were still being treated and 77,346 people discharged after treatment.

The total number of imported cases of the coronavirus in China increased to 1,629 on Friday, of this 909 had been discharged from hospitals after recovery, and 720 were being treated with 25 in severe conditions, it said.

Also on Friday, 29 asymptomatic cases were reported. So far, 983 suspected asymptomatic cases, including 150 from abroad, were still under medical observation, it said.

Coronavirus’ first epicentres Hubei and its capital Wuhan had 553 asymptomatic cases under medical observation, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The asymptomatic cases were a cause of concern as the government has lifted over two-month lockdown in Hubei and Wuhan after cases abated.

Asymptomatic cases refer to people who are tested positive for the coronavirus but develop no symptoms such as fever, cough or sore throat. They are infectious and pose a risk of spreading to others.

PTI

To date, the FDA has issued 44 individual emergency use authorisations for test kit manufacturers and laboratories

A top Trump administration health official has said that as many as 72 COVID-19 therapeutics trial are underway and 211 in planning stages in a bid to find the cure for coronavirus.

“We are leaving no stone unturned to find the treatment for COVID-19… We don’t have any approved therapeutics for COVID-19 but we are actively involved with the academic, commercial and private sector to find it,” FDA Commissioner Stephen M. Hahn told reporters at a White House news conference.

“Seventy-two trials of therapeutics are underway in the United States under FDA oversight and 211 are in the planning stages, so we expect to see more. This includes convalescent plasma as well as antiviral therapies,” Hahn added. According to Hahn, work is continuing on finding a vaccine. FDA has authorised two firms on vaccine trials.

Hahn said that the FDA has told manufacturers that in order to market anti-body tests in the U.S., they have to validate their tests. So far, the U.S. has authorised four and more are in the pipeline, he added.

The FDA is also helping make antibody tests that are used to detect natural immunity these “These are just one part of FDA’s larger response effort. They can play a role in helping move the economy forward by helping healthcare professionals identify those who have immunity to the COVID-19,” he asserted.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the FDA has worked with more than 380 test developers who have said they will be submitting emergency use authorisations (EUA) requests to FDA for tests that detect the virus. To date, the FDA has issued 44 individual emergency use authorisations for test kit manufacturers and laboratories. In addition, 19 authorised tests have been added to the EUA letter of authorisation for high complexity molecular-based laboratory developed tests (LDTs).

Reuters

China said on Thursday it would donate another $30 million to the World Health Organization (WHO), which is seeking more than $1 billion to fund its battle against the pandemic. The pledge comes after U.S. President Donald Trump suspended funding to the WHO and accused the organisation of promoting Chinese “disinformation” about the virus, which emerged in Wuhan last year.

Guards chief says U.S. warships will be destroyed if security of Gulf is imperilled

Reuters

Iran will destroy U.S. warships if its security is threatened in the Gulf, the head of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards told state TV on Thursday, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump warned Tehran over ”harassment” of U.S. vessels.

“I have ordered our naval forces to destroy any American terrorist force in the Persian Gulf that threatens security of Iran’s military or non-military ships,” Major General Hossein Salami said. “Security of the Persian Gulf is part of Iran’s strategic priorities.”

Trump said on Wednesday he had instructed the U.S. Navy to fire on any Iranian ships that harass it at sea, but said later he was not changing the militarys rules of engagement.

Earlier this month, the U.S. military said 11 Revolutionary Guards naval vessels from the Guards Navy came close to U.S. Navy and coast guard ships in the Gulf, calling the moves dangerous and provocative.

On Thursday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Swiss Ambassador in Tehran, who represents U.S. interests in the country, over the recent tensions between Tehran and Washington. “I am telling the Americans that we are absolutely determined and serious in defending our national security, our water borders, our shipping safety, and our security forces, and we will respond decisively to any sabotage,” Salami said.

“Americans have experienced our power in the past and must learn from it.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif suggested that Mr. Trump should focus on saving U.S. service members from the pandemic. “The U.S. military is hit by over 5,000 #covid19 infections… Also, U.S. forces have no business 7,000 miles away from home, provoking our sailors off our OWN Persian Gulf shores,” Mr.Zarif tweeted.

The state-controlled media in North Korea has been silent on Kim’s whereabouts.

Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday threw more cold water on reports that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was gravely ill, but declined to say if he had been in touch with officials there.

“I think the report was incorrect,” Mr. Trump said at a daily White House briefing, adding that he had heard it was based on ”old documents.”

Mr. Trump had said on Tuesday that he might contact North Korean officials to inquire about Mr. Kim but gave no indication on Thursday he had done so. The two leaders have had regular communications over the past couple of years.

“We have a good relationship with North Korea, I have a good relationship with Kim Jong Un and I hope he’s okay,” Mr. Trump said.

Daily NK, a Seoul-based website, reported on Monday that Mr. Kim, who is believed to be about 36, was recovering after undergoing a cardiovascular procedure on April 12. It cited one unnamed source in North Korea. The state-controlled media in North Korea has been silent on Kim’s whereabouts.

Two South Korean government officials rejected a subsequent CNN report citing an unnamed U.S. official saying that the United States was “monitoring intelligence” that Mr. Kim was in grave danger after surgery.

On Tuesday,Mr. Trump, who held unprecedented summits with Mr. Kim in 2018 and 2019 in an attempt to persuade him to give up his nuclear weapons, said the reports had not been confirmed and he did not put much credence in them.

Mr. Kim is a third-generation hereditary leader who rules North Korea with an iron fist, coming to power after his father Kim Jong Il died in 2011 from a heart attack.

The U.S. governments latest information on the North Korean leadership is that Mr. Kim still remains out of sight and there is a dearth of reliable information about the reasons for his absence, according to a source familiar with current intelligence reporting and analysis.

U.S. officials acknowledge Mr. Kim does have a history of health problems and is overweight, and say that this does at least raise a credible possibility he has suffered some kind of health crisis, the source said.

But they do not regard theories that Mr. Kim has had a heart attack or some other serious health setback as confirmed, and said he has disappeared from public view for extended periods in the past.

U.S. government experts do not believe Mr. Kim’s influential sister, Kim Yo Jong, is a shoo-in to succeed him were he to die. They believe there is no clear designated successor in the event that Mr. Kim dies, the source said.

More than 4.4 million laid-off Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, the government reported.

AP

Unemployment in the U.S. is swelling to levels last seen during the Great Depression of the 1930s, with 1 in 6 American workers thrown out of a job by the coronavirus, according to new data released Thursday. In response to the deepening economic crisis, the House passed a nearly $500 billion spending package to help buckled businesses and hospitals.

More than 4.4 million laid-off Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, the government reported. In all, roughly 26 million people — the population of the 10 biggest U.S. cities combined — have now filed for jobless aid in five weeks, an epic collapse that has raised the stakes in the debate over how and when to ease the shutdowns of factories and other businesses.

In the hardest-hit corner of the U.S., evidence emerged that perhaps 2.7 million New York state residents have been infected by the virus — 10 times the number confirmed by lab tests.

A small, preliminary statewide survey of around 3,000 people found that nearly 14% had antibodies showing they had been infected, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. Just in New York City, with a population of 8.6 million, Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot said as many as 1 million may have been infected.

The coronavirus has killed nearly 1,90,000 people worldwide, including more than 1,00,000 in Europe and about 47,000 in the United States, according to a tally compiled by John Hopkins University from official government figures. The true numbers are almost certainly far higher.

Economic consquences

In the U.S., the economic consequences of the shutdowns have sparked angry rallies in state capitals by protesters demanding that businesses reopen, and President Donald Trump has expressed impatience over the restrictions.

Some governors have begun easing up despite warnings from health authorities that it may be too soon to do so without sparking a second wave of infections. In Georgia, gyms, hair salons and bowling alleys can reopen Friday. Texas has reopened its state parks.

Few Americans count on Mr. Trump as a reliable source of information on the outbreak, according to a survey from NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. About 23% said they have high levels of trust in what he tells the public, while 21% said they trust him a moderate amount.

On the economic front, few experts foresee a downturn as severe as the Depression, when unemployment remained above 14% from 1931 to 1940, peaking at 25%. But unemployment is considered likely to remain elevated well into next year and probably beyond, and will surely top the 10% peak of the 2008-09 recession.

Stories of uncertainity

Janet Simon, laid off as a waitress at an IHOP restaurant in Miami, said she has just $200 in her name and is getting panic attacks because of uncertainty over how she will care for her three children. Simon, 33, filed for unemployment a month ago, and her application is still listed as “pending.”

“I’m doing everything to keep my family safe, my children safe, but everything else around me is falling apart,” Simon said. “But they see it, no matter how much I try to hide my despair.”

Corey Williams, 31, was laid off from his warehouse job in Michigan a month ago and saw his rent, insurance and other bills pile up while he anxiously awaited his unemployment benefits. That finally happened on Wednesday, and he quickly paid $1,700 in bills.

“It was getting pretty tight, pretty tight,” he said. “It was definitely stressful for the last few days.”

While the health crisis has eased in places like Italy, Spain and France, experts say it is far from over, and the threat of new outbreaks looms large.

“The question is not whether there will be a second wave,” said Dr. Hans Kluge, the head of the WHO’s Europe office. “The question is whether we will take into account the biggest lessons so far.”

Agencies

KARACHI: Moon of Ramadan didn’t appear on today (April 23) in the country.

Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee had a meeting in Karachi today to decide about sighting of the Moon for Ramazan-ul-Mubarak 1441 Hijri or otherwise.

The Pakistan Meteorological Department said on Thursday (April 23) that moon of Ramadan was born on at 07:26 PST.

The MET office also added that the new moon will not be sighted today (April 23).

Chairman of the Committee Mufti Munib-ur-Rehman chaired the meeting.

The first Ramadan will be on Saturday (April 24).

Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry said on his official twitter, “For the first time in history of Pakistan, the Ministry of Science and Technology has been included in the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee.”

پاکستان کی تاریخ میں پہلی بار وزارت سائنس اور ٹیکنالوجی کو رویت ہلال کمیتی میں شامل کیا گیا ہے، یہ درست سمت میں قدم ہے مذہبی تہوار اتحاد اور برکت کا باعث ہوتے ہیں اور اسی جذبے سے آگے بڑھنا چاہئے #RamzanMubarik pic.twitter.com/O9pbiykSNP

— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) April 22, 2020

Earlier Ruet-e-Hilal Committee Chairman Mufti Muneeb ur Rehman said that he and Mufti Taqi Usmani would offer payers at home during Ramazan amid COVID-19 pandemic

“We have started implementing the 20-point agreement finalized with the federal government,” Muneeb ur Rehman said.

Ruet-e-Hilal Committee Chairman stressed upon other clerics to implement the agreement with the government.

“We have promised with the president and the prime minister that people aging above 50 will not come to mosques,” he said.

In his message for the prayer leaders, Mufti Muneeb ur Rehman said that they should point out signs in the mosques to implement social distancing during the prayers.

It will focus on safety and tolerability in 500 healthy volunteers

PTI

The Oxford University will on April 23 begin a Phase-1 clinical trial of its vaccine called ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 against the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). “The vaccine from the Oxford project will be trialled in people from this Thursday,” Health Secretary Matt Hancock said during a daily press conference on April 22.

The vaccine will be tested on 500 healthy volunteers aged between 15 and 55 years in the Thames Valley region and will focus on safety and tolerability. It will also assess the effectiveness of the vaccine to stimulate an immune response against the virus.

According to The New York Times, the researchers plan to carry out mid-stage efficacy trials of the vaccine. “They then plan to expand the trial group to older age groups later, and hope to run a final phase trial with around 5,000 volunteers in the late summer,” the report said.

The vaccine is a recombinant viral vector vaccine that uses a chimpanzee adenovirus vaccine vector (ChAdOx1) that carries the genetic sequence of the coronavirus surface ‘spike’ protein inside the ChAdOx1 construct. Vaccination with the spike protein is expected to stimulate an immune response, thus protecting against virus infection.

The vaccine will comprise only one dose and does not use a replicating virus, so it cannot cause an infection in the vaccinated individual. Adenoviral vectors are a very well-studied vaccine type, having been used safely in many people, including HIV vaccine trials.

The Oxford University project — led by Prof Sarah Gilbert, Prof Andrew Pollard, Prof Teresa Lambe, Dr Sandy Douglas and Prof Adrian Hill — started working on a vaccine in early January shortly after China shared the genetic sequence of the virus. The team had earlier developed a vaccine for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), which has shown promise in early clinical trials. The MERS vaccine could generate an immune response for at least a year after vaccination.

British scientists are already manufacturing a million doses of the vaccine and these will be available by September, even before trials prove whether the vaccine is safe and effective.

The decision to test PM Imran Khan was made according to a standard operating procedure (SOP), which states that every contact of a confirmed Covid-19 case should undergo a test, officials said.

Agencies

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has tested negative for the Coronavirus, one of his aides said on Wednesday, days after the premier came in contact with a civil society activist who had tested positive for Covid-19.

There was some confusion earlier in the day after Samaa TV news channel reported that Khan underwent a test for Covid-19 on Tuesday, whereas the premier’s focal person for the Covid-19 crisis, Faisal Sultan, clarified that his sample had been collected for testing on Wednesday.

“Prime Minister Imran Khan was tested today for SARS-CoV-2 (the virus strain that causes coronavirus disease 2019 [COVID-19]). The test used was a polymerase chain reaction (PCR). I am happy to report that his test is NEGATIVE,” Firdous Ashiq Awan, special advisor to the prime minister for information and broadcasting, tweeted late on Wednesday.

Earlier, Sultan issued a brief video message that said only the sample had been collected. “The test takes a few hours. We will release the report through official channels once it is received,” he said.

The decision to test Khan was made according to a standard operating procedure (SOP) that states every contact of a confirmed Covid-19 case should undergo a test, officials said.

The news about the test for the prime minister came on the day that the number of Covid-19 cases in Pakistan crossed the 10,000 mark. The country has also recorded 212 deaths while 2,156 people have recovered.

On Tuesday, it emerged that Faisal Edhi, the son of late philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi, had tested positive for the novel Coronavirus. Faisal Edhi met Khan on April 15 to hand over a cheque for Rs10 million for the premier’s coronavirus relief fund.

Saad Edhi, the son of Faisal Edhi, told Dawn newspaper that his father began showing symptoms last week, soon after meeting Khan in Islamabad. “The symptoms lasted for four days before subsiding,” Saad said. He added his father was currently in Islamabad and doing better.

Faisal Edhi’s test was conducted at Al-Shifa Hospital in Islamabad last week. A spokesperson for the Edhi Foundation, Muhammad Bilal, told the media that Faisal Edhi had gone into self-isolation.

However, Khan faced considerable criticism, mostly on social media, for continuing to hold meetings and for not going into self-isolation after it became known that Edhi had tested positive. He was also criticised for his government’s decision to allow prayers at mosques, especially during the holy month of Ramzan.

The two-stage satellite launch took off from Iran’s Central Desert, says Revolutionary Guard.

AP

Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said Wednesday it launched a military satellite into orbit amid wider tensions with the U.S., a successful launch after months of failures.

There was no immediate independent confirmation of the launch of the satellite, which the Guard called “Noor,” or light.

The Guard on its official said the satellite successfully reached an orbit of 425 kilometers above the Earth’s surface.

The two-stage satellite launch took off from Iran’s Central Desert, the Guard said, without elaborating.

The launch comes amid tensions between Tehran and Washington over its collapsing nuclear deal and after a U.S. drone strike killed Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani in January.

Iran has suffered several failed satellite launches in recent months.

On Sunday, the Guard acknowledged it had a tense encounter with U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf last week, but alleged without offering evidence that American forces sparked the incident.