Ireland: 0.1% of cases linked to outdoor transmission
Outdoor transmission accounts for 0.1% of [Republic of Ireland] State’s Covid-19 cases
[Media report.] Of the 232,164 cases of Covid-19 recorded in the State up to March 24th this year, 262 were as a result of outdoor transmission, representing 0.1 per cent of the total.
Rapid Scoping Review of Evidence of Outdoor Transmission of COVID-19
There is evidence of a behavioural effect, where temperatures that encourage outdoor activity are associated with lower COVID-19 transmission. The risk of COVID-19 infection is low outdoors if normal conventions of personal space and natural social distancing are not breached.
COVID-19: Make it the Last Pandemic
[WHO independent panel report.] Years of warnings of an inevitable pandemic threat were not acted on and there was inadequate funding and stress testing of preparedness, despite the increasing rate at which zoonotic diseases are emerging. for the month following the declaration of the Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on 30 January 2020, too many countries took a ‘wait and see’ approach rather than enacting an aggressive containment strategy that could have forestalled the global pandemic. As COVID-19 spread into more countries, neither national nor international systems managed to meet the initial and urgent demands for supplies. Coordinated, global leadership was absent.
EU regulator ‘confident’ vaccines work against Indian coronavirus variant
[Media report.] Speaking during a press briefing, Marco Cavaleri, the EMA's head of vaccines strategy, said the data seems “rather reassuring” that the mRNA vaccines from BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna are effective, “at least to an extent that will guarantee sufficient protection.” The EMA expects the two other approved vaccines in the EU, both viral vector vaccines — from Oxford/AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson — would also be effective, he added. India currently has 3.7 million active cases of coronavirus, according to its health ministry. In the last 24 hours, the country reported 4,205 new deaths.
BNT162b2-Elicited Neutralization against New SARS-CoV-2 Spike Variants
[Pfizer.] To determine whether variants that have emerged more recently are also susceptible to BNT162b2-elicited neutralization, we engineered the complete S genes of the variant viruses into the genetic background of USA-WA1/2020 (isolated in January 2020). As compared with neutralization of USA-WA1/2020, neutralization of B.1.1.7-spike+E484K and B.1.526-spike viruses was approximately equivalent, and neutralization of B.1.429-spike was slightly lower, possibly reflecting the influence of the L452R mutation, which appears to be under positive selective pressure.