South Korea authorises Novavax Covid-19 vaccine, imports Pfizer pills

 At least 21,000 of Pfizer’s antiviral pills, called Paxlovid, will arrive in South Korea on Thursday, with another 10,000 more expected to arrive by the end of the month, the health ministry said

South Korea is turning to additional pharmaceutical tools as it looks to pre-empt a surge of COVID-19 omicron infections, authorising the use of Novavax Inc’s vaccine on Wednesday and preparing to distribute the first of Pfizer’s antiviral pills.

At least 21,000 of Pfizer’s antiviral pills, called Paxlovid, will arrive in South Korea on Thursday, with another 10,000 more expected to arrive by the end of the month, the health ministry said. The pills, which were authorised for emergency use in December, will begin being used in treatments for more than 1,000 people per day starting on Friday, the ministry added “By priority, oral treatment is planned to begin first for patients aged 65 or older, or patients with reduced immunity at home and residential treatment centres,” a ministry spokesperson told a briefing. Paxlovid was nearly 90% effective in preventing hospitalizations and deaths in patients at high risk of severe illness, according to data from the company’s clinical trial.,,

India’s Covid-19 cases set for new highs as Omicron spreads rapidly

 Government officials have privately said they are working under the assumption that daily infections will surpass the record of more than 414,000 set in May

India’s daily Covid-19 cases jumped to 117,100 on Friday, a five-fold increase in a week and on course to overtake its previous infection peak as the fast-spreading Omicron variant replaces Delta in cities.

Government officials have privately said they are working under the assumption that daily infections will surpass the record of more than 414,000 set in May, given what has happened in countries such as the United States where daily cases recently rose past 1 million. “We will clearly surpass our record shortly and reach a new peak by early February,” M.D. Gupte, a former director of the state-run National Institute of Epidemiology and an immunisation adviser to the government, told Reuters.

“Given the size of our population, we will report more daily cases than the U.S. But what we have seen is that these cases are much more mild, so the need for hospitalisation and oxygen and all that is not picking up.” He said India’s high rate of infection during a previous major wave in April and May, as well as vaccinations, would mean a reduction in the severity of the illness for those infected by the Omicron variant.

Omicron scare: Amid sudden Covid-19 surge, Centre flags eight states

 West Bengal bans flights from UK; nearly 50% fresh cases in Delhi of Omicron

India’s R naught value, which indicates the spread of Covid-19, is 1.22, the Union government said on Thursday, warning that cases are increasing, not shrinking. It asked Delhi, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Jharkhand to remain vigilant following a significant rise in weekly infections and positivity rate there.

In view of rising Omicron cases, the West Bengal government on Thursday announced that it would suspend all direct flights from the UK and those emanating from other high-risk countries (as notified by the Union government) from January 3. This, even as Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee maintained that coronavirus-related restrictions cannot be imposed everywhere as they may impact the economy.

Eight districts in India are reporting over 10 per cent weekly positivity across the country. The country on Thursday reported a single-day rise of over 13,000 new Covid-19 cases after around 49 days….

Omicron spread: Third Covid shot after nine months of second jab

 Student ID card will be considered as a proof to register on CoWIN

The gap between the second and the third doses of Covid vaccines given to co-morbid elderly, and health care and frontline workers has been set at least nine months, guidelines for Covid vaccinations for children and precaution dose issued on Monday said. Covaxin is the only option for children between 15 years and 18 years, the government said.

The Ministry of Health guidelines noted that in view of the recent global surge in Covid-19 cases, detection of Omicron variant, scientific evidence, and inputs and suggestions of ‘Covid-19 Working Group of the National Technical Advi­sory Group on Immunisation (NTAGI)’, as well as of ‘Standing Technical Scientific Committee (STSC)’ of NTAGI, India has decided to modify its Covid vaccination policy. Vaccinations for the age group of 15-18 years open on January 3.

“For such beneficiaries, vaccination option would be ‘Covaxin’ only,” the guidelines noted. A senior government official said this was done according to advice from the NTAGI, which has not recommended the Zydus Cadila vaccine for use on those under 18 years.

Coronavirus protein redesigned in lab, may enable stable vaccine production

Scientists have redesigned a key protein from coronavirus which it uses to enter and infect human cells, an innovation that may lead to faster and more stable production of vaccines

Scientists have redesigned a key protein from the novel coronavirus which it uses to enter and infect human cells, an innovation that may lead to much faster and more stable production of vaccines against COVID-19. According to the researchers, including those from the University of Texas at Austin in the US, most COVID-19 vaccine candidates train the human immune system to recognise a key protein on the surface of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 called the spike (S) protein to fight infection.

In the current study, published in the journal Science, the scientists designed a new version of this protein which can be produced up to 10 times more in cells than that of an earlier synthetic S protein already in use in multiple COVID-19 vaccines. “Depending on the type of vaccine, this improved version of the protein could reduce the size of each dose or speed up vaccine production,” said study senior author Jason McLellan from the University of Texas at Austin. “Either way, it could mean more patients have access to vaccines faster,” McLellan said.

The new protein, dubbed HexaPro, is also more stable than the team’s earlier version of the S protein, which according to the scientists should make it easier to store and transport. They said the new S protein also keeps its shape under heat stress, during storage at room temperature, and through multiple freeze-thaws — qualities that are desirable in a robust vaccine.

New vaccine to offer treatment for acne

Do you often suffer from acne? Take heart, a potential vaccine that targets the bacterial toxins may soon be on the anvil, say researchers.

Health News : Instead of invading pathogens, the new vaccine would be the first to target bacteria already in human skin.

The researchers demonstrated that antibodies to a toxin secreted from bacteria in acne vulgaris can reduce inflammation in human acne lesions.

“Once validated by a large-scale clinical trial, the potential impact of our findings is huge for the hundreds of millions of individuals suffering from acne vulgaris,” explained lead investigator Chun-Ming Huang, from the University of California-San Diego, US.

An acne vaccination could circumvent potential adverse effects of topical or systemic retinoids and antibiotics, the current treatment options.

They found that Christie-Atkins-Munch-Peterson (CAMP) factor — a toxin secreted from the Propionibacterium acnes (P. acnes) bacteria, can induce inflammatory responses.

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