Health
Coronavirus update: Bengal home secy claims community transmission in areas
The UK’s vaccine candidate and a Chinese one, both showed promising results according to research published in The Lancet
By DTE Staff
Published: Monday 20 July 2020
The United Kingdom’s vaccine candidate against SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) has shown promising early stage results from a Phase 1/2 clinical trial, according to results published on July 20 in The Lancet.
- The early-stage trial found that the vaccine was safe, caused few side effects and induced strong immune responses in both parts of the immune system — provoking a T cell response within 14 days of vaccination and an antibody response with 28 days.
- The trial involved 1,077 healthy adults. Based on their results, the authors said further clinical studies, including in older adults, should be done with this vaccine.
A Phase 2 trial of an Ad5 vectored COVID-19 vaccine candidate, conducted in China, has found that the vaccine was safe and induced an immune response, according to new research published in The Lancet.
- The trial followed a Phase 1 trial published in May 2020. The results provide data from a wider group of participants than their phase 1 trial, including a small sub-group of participants aged over 55 years and older, and will inform phase 3 trials of the vaccine.
- However, the authors noted that it was important to stress that no participants were exposed to SARS-CoV-2 virus after vaccination. Thus, it was not possible for this study to determine whether the vaccine candidate effectively protected against SARS-CoV-2 infection.
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has distanced itself from the statement of its chairman that warned of community transmission in India.
- In a statement on July 20, 2020, the IMA said that the alleged statement was not from its headquarters and was a matter of personal opinion.
- On July 18, 2020, VK Monga, the chairman of IMA Hospital Board of India had said that community transmission of the virus has begun in India.
Menawhile, COVID-19 figures in India continued to climb on July 20, 2020.
- The total number of cases according the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare was 1,118,043.
- Of these, 390,459 were active cases, while 700,086 were cured or discharged. There were 27,497 deaths while one case had migrated.
- There were 1,132,475 cases according to private aggregator, Covid19india.
- Of these, 394,548 were active cases, 709,817 were recovered and there were 27, 707 deaths.
- According to Worldometers, India had a total 1,127,28 cases.
- Only the United States (3,901,026) and Brazil (2,100,112) had more cases than India.
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