Covid omicron latest news: Pfizer sees ‘40-fold reduction in antibodies’ against omicron but still provides some protection -study

A leaked footage seems to point out Downing Avenue’s former press secretary Allegra Stratton laughing final 12 months as No 10 employees appeared to try to organize her for the potential for journalists’ questions over a celebration within the constructing.

A recording obtained by ITV Information purports to point out Ms Stratton in Downing Avenue’s newly constructed £2.6m press briefing room, answering questions from one in every of Boris Johnson’s advisers about whether or not she “recognises” studies of a celebration in No 10.

“I went dwelling,”Ms Stratton could be heard replying, earlier than beginning to snicker and including, “maintain on”, whereas showing to think about an applicable response.

After a big pause, she is requested whether or not the prime minister would condone having a Christmas get together, to which she laughs and responds: “What’s the reply?”

Others within the room could be heard saying: “It wasn’t a celebration, it was cheese and wine.”

“Is cheese and wine alright?” Ms Stratton could be heard asking, earlier than including with fun: “That is recorded. This fictional get together was a enterprise assembly and it was not socially distanced.”

The Unbiased has approached Ms Stratton for remark over the footage obtained by ITV Information.

Our coverage correspondent Jon Stone has this report:

Serum Institute of India (SII), the world’s largest vaccine maker, has mentioned it will halve its manufacturing of Covishield, a model of AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine, from subsequent week attributable to an absence of orders.

“I’m going to be lowering manufacturing by at the least 50 per cent to start with, going ahead on a month-to-month foundation, till orders once more choose up both in India or the world,” Adar Poonawalla, CEO of SII advised India’s CNBC TV18.

SII’s Covishield has been essentially the most administered vaccine in India and it’s also being exported to creating and under-developed nations underneath the worldwide vaccine sharing programme Covax.

The corporate started its exports as soon as once more in November after an extended halt, after it mentioned it reached its unique goal of manufacturing one billion doses of Covishield by the top of the 12 months.

“SII has reached this milestone forward of time through fast growth of manufacturing capability at its web site in Pune,” the corporate mentioned in a launch in November.

Other than Covishield, SII can also be producing one other Covid vaccine, Covovax, from US-based firm Novavax, which acquired emergency use authorisation from regulators in Indonesia and the Philippines just lately.

Whereas SII has determined to scale back manufacturing, India is but to take a name on offering booster jabs to its inhabitants regardless of fears of the omicron variant.

India, which has to this point managed to completely vaccinate solely 35 per cent of the inhabitants, has reported 23 instances of the brand new variant.

South Korea is contemplating increasing dwelling remedy of Covid-19 sufferers, a well being official mentioned on Wednesday, amid fears of rising stress on hospitals as instances spike as soon as once more within the nation to document numbers.

The nation reported 7,175 new coronavirus instances and 63 deaths on Tuesday, the primary time every day infections had been over 7,000, whereas hospitals handled a document 840 crucial and severe instances.

“You will need to retain or scale back the pattern of the present scale of the severely-ill sufferers inside per week or two,” Son Younger-rae, a senior well being ministry official, advised a information convention.

He additionally mentioned the federal government might have to make some changes to the best way the healthcare system within the nation works if instances proceed to rise, together with increasing the restrict of Covid sufferers who can obtain at-home remedy.

Already, asymptomatic sufferers and people with gentle signs and under the age of 70 can deal with themselves at dwelling within the nation.

The federal government will mobilise extra personnel to supervise coronavirus sufferers treating themselves at dwelling and enhance the emergency switch system to hospitals for many who develop extreme signs.

Australia’s Queensland has detected two new instances of omicron, together with one with a unique lineage of the brand new variant.

Whereas Australia already has confirmed situations of group transmission of omicron, the 2 instances are the primary for Queensland.

Two males, who travelled from Nigeria and South Africa, had been discovered contaminated with the omicron variant and each have been remoted whereas their contacts are being examined, officers confirmed on Wednesday.

However samples of one of many individuals examined, who travelled from South Africa to Brisbane on Saturday, was discovered to have a barely totally different lineage of omicron genetically.

The scientific workforce that noticed the distinction has handed it on to the worldwide committee, leading to reclassification of the variant into two lineages.

“The essential half is these two sub-lineages, one has the S gene dropout and is the conventional technique of screening for omicron … however then this different gene then doesn’t have this S gene dropout,” Queensland’s chief well being officer Peter Aitken was quoted as saying by ABC Australia.

He added that new classification would make it simpler for individuals to recognise the potential unfold of omicron in all communities.

The US’ high infectious illness official has mentioned that the omicron coronavirus variant is “clearly extremely transmissible”, however is “virtually actually” no more extreme than delta.

Chatting with Agence France-Presse, Dr Anthony Fauci mentioned that experiments testing the efficiency of antibodies from the assorted vaccines in opposition to the omicron variant ought to be accessible within the “subsequent few days to per week”.

Reacting to the early lab checks in South Africa displaying Pfizer’s decreased efficacy in defending in opposition to the omicron variant, a World Well being Organisation (WHO) official mentioned current vaccines ought to be capable to present sufficient safety in opposition to extreme instances even with the brand new variant.

In response to the WHO’s Dr Mike Ryan, there was no signal but that omicron can be higher at evading vaccines than different variants.

“We have now extremely efficient vaccines which have proved efficient in opposition to all of the variants to this point, when it comes to extreme illness and hospitalisation, and there’s no purpose to count on that it wouldn’t be so” for omicron, Dr Ryan, the WHO’s emergencies director, advised AFP information company.

He added that preliminary knowledge urged omicron didn’t trigger extra extreme sickness however turned milder.

“If something, the course is in the direction of much less severity,” he mentioned.

Researchers in South Africa have present in an early research that Pfizer’s vaccine supplies some safety in opposition to the brand new omicron variant, however lower than it supplied with different variants.

Researchers on the Africa Well being Analysis Institute in Durban carried out the primary experiment gauging the efficacy of the Pfizer vaccine on omicron and located that it resulted in a few 40-fold discount in ranges of neutralising antibodies produced by individuals who had acquired two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech SE shot, in contrast with the variant detected in China virtually two years in the past.

Alex Sigal, the pinnacle of analysis on the laboratory, mentioned that the lack of immune safety is “strong, however not full” and that additional efficacy research are wanted to establish the extent of safety Pfizer can present, including {that a} booster dose can improve the safety.

“A superb booster in all probability would lower your likelihood of an infection, particularly extreme an infection resulting in extra extreme illness,” the Bloomberg information company quoted the researcher as saying. “Individuals who haven’t had a booster ought to get one, and individuals who have been beforehand contaminated ought to be vaccinated.”

Welcome to The Unbiased’s reside weblog masking the Covid-19 pandemic for Wednesday eight December.