World Coronavirus Dispatch: Growing disquiet over Oxford-Astra vaccine data

Covid passports seen key to resuming travel, Sewage testing may offer early signs of outbreaks, IBM to shed 10,000 jobs in Europe, and other pandemic-related news across the globe

Sewage testing may offer early signs of outbreaks

Wastewater testing may help officials spot potential coronavirus outbreaks earlier than clinical testing. People infected with virus are likely to shed high amounts of virus in their feces even before they get symptomatic. Early signs of outbreak may lead to orders of closure and putting in place effective measures before the virus is spread in the community. The study by MIT, which is yet to be peer-reviewed, along with another study published in the October issue of Nature Biotechnology by Yale researchers, suggest that sewage surveillance could play an important role in helping contain the pandemic. Read more...

Let's look at global statistics

Global Infections: 60,420,355

Change over Yesterday: 658,300

Global deaths: 1,421,650

Nations with most cases: US (12,777,754), India (9,266,705), Brazil (6,166,606), France (2,221,874), Russia(2,144,229)

Source: John Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center

IBM to shed 10,000 jobs in Europe

IBM is said to be planning to cut about 10,000 workers in Europe as it prepares to split off its traditional technology services business from the rest of the company. While declining to comment on large scale layoffs, it is said to be briefing works councils — committees that represent employees to management — in Europe, a step large companies are required to take in advance of any significant layoffs. Hardest hit will be IBM’s legacy IT services business, which handles day-to-day infrastructure operations. Read more..

Covid passports seen as key to resuming international travel

Global airline lobby IATA is working on a mobile app that will help travelers demonstrate their coronavirus-free status, joining a push to introduce so-called Covid passports to speed up the revival of international travel. The Travel Pass will display test results together with proof of inoculation, as well as listing national entry rules and details on the nearest labs, according to the International Air Transport Association. The app will also link to an electronic copy of the holder’s passport to prove their identity. Read more...

Doubts raised over AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine data

With an average efficacy of 70 per cent, Oxford-Astrazenca vaccine has sparked hope in the developing world that they too can emerge out of the pandemic. However, many are questioning the efficacy of the vaccine in two different dosing regimens. At the heart of the vaccine trials were two regimens, where the first set of participants were given two identical doses and the results were 62 per cent effective. Exactly a month later, the second group were administered a half dose and then a full dose, which triggered an efficacy of 90 per cent. Critics say the higher efficacy in the second sub-group should be taken with a pinch of salt, as participants were below 55 years, the age group less vulnerable to severe Covid-19. The vaccine makers did not reveal the age breakdown on when results were made public. Doubts were also raised about how the lower regimen triggered higher efficacy. Experts say there is not enough information available to tell whether the results were accurate.  Read on...

Sunak warns of economic emergency as borrowing soars

Rishi Sunak has warned that Britain faces a gruelling haul out of the Covid-19 crisis against a backdrop of soaring borrowing, rising unemployment and uncertainty over Brexit. The chancellor revealed in his spending review that the coronavirus pandemic would raise government borrowing this year to a peacetime record of £394 billion, while 2.6 million, or roughly 7.5 per cent, could be out of work by the second quarter of 2021. Read more...

Germany extends virus curbs

Chancellor Angela Merkel extended a partial lockdown for at least three weeks to just before Christmas as Germany struggles to regain control of the coronavirus spread. Europe’s largest economy tightened limits on private gatherings but kept schools and most businesses operating under a deal hashed out by Merkel and the leaders of Germany’s 16 states on Wednesday. The restrictions -- slated to expire at the end of November -- will run until Dec. 20 and will likely be extended unless there’s an unexpectedly rapid decline in contagion rates. Read more...

Specials

What the world can learn from pandemic

The most important single thing we have learnt from Covid-19 is how much damage may be done by a relatively mild pandemic by long-term historical standards. To call it mild is not to belittle the suffering it has caused, and will continue to cause, before an effective vaccination programme is rolled out and sustained globally. But Covid-19 has demonstrated a social and economic vulnerability far greater than experts imagined. It is important to understand why this is the case and learn how to manage the impact of such diseases better in future. Read on....

Covid laid bare racial disparities in health

In the few countries that collect and publish such data, it is clear that covid-19 has hit ethnic minorities harder than other communities. That is in part because the disease disproportionately affects those in jobs, such as security guards and supermarket staff, where ethnic minorities are over-represented. But it is also because of racial disparities in health. Doctors have long argued about the extent to which those disparities are the result of broader inequalities compared with other factors, such as racism or biology. Covid-19 has thrown those questions into stark relief. Read on....