A study published in the Lancet medical journal has found that 76% of people admitted to hospital with Covid-19 still suffer from at least one symptom six months on.
The study traced hundreds of patients in the Chinese city of Wuhan. It’s one of very few studies on long Covid.
More from AFP:
The study found that fatigue or muscle weakness were the most common symptoms, while people also reported sleeping difficulties.
“Because Covid-19 is such a new disease, we are only beginning to understand some of its long-term effects on patients’ health,” said lead author Bin Cao, of the National Center for Respiratory Medicine.
The professor said the research highlighted the need for ongoing care for patients after they have been discharged from hospital, particularly those who have had severe infections.
“Our work also underscores the importance of conducting longer follow-up studies in larger populations in order to understand the full spectrum of effects that Covid-19 can have on people,” he added.
The World Health Organization has said the virus poses a risk for some people of serious ongoing effects – even among young, otherwise healthy people who were not hospitalised.
The new study included 1,733 Covid-19 patients discharged from Jinyintan Hospital in Wuhan between January and May last year.
Patients, who had an average age of 57, were visited between June and September and answered questions on their symptoms and health-related quality of life.
Researchers also conducted physical examinations and lab tests.
The study found that 76 percent of patients who participated in the follow-up (1,265 of 1,655) said they still had symptoms.
Fatigue or muscle weakness was reported by 63 percent, while 26 percent had sleep problems.
The study also looked at 94 patients whose blood antibody levels were recorded at the height of the infection as part of another trial.
When these patients were retested after six month, their levels of neutralising antibodies were 52.5 percent lower.
The authors said this raises concerns about the possibility of Covid-19 re-infection, although they said larger samples would be needed to clarify how immunity to the virus changes over time.
Victorian health minister Martin Foley will give an update on Covid-19 at 12pm AEDT.
In the Philippines, Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute has applied to the health regulator for emergency use authorisation of its Covid-19 vaccine, the Philippine regulator said.
Gamaleya’s emergency use application is the third the Philippine Food and Drug Administration has received after Pfizer and AstraZeneca both made similar applications.
Back in Australia, authorities in Queensland have urged people not to engage in panic buying for the three-day lockdown. There were long queues, shelves were cleared, and police were called to some supermarkets in Brisbane yesterday.
Again, it’s three days. Chief health officer Dr Jeanette Young has said she can’t guarantee the lockdown may not be extended, but even if it is the supermarkets will remain open and people are allowed to shop unrestricted so long as they wear a mask. There is absolutely no need to clear the shelves.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said:
We are not going to run out of food. There is no need to panic buy, and as the health minister said, we have a lot of seniors in our community and it is really important that they get the essential groceries that they need. There is a lot of people out there that don’t have a lot of money and they live week to week. We need to make sure that they get essential food for themselves and also for their families. Please, everyone, just be patient and calm.
This weekend is a good weekend to stay at home with your family and to do some odd jobs around the house or indulge in some watching of Netflix or whatever you desire to watch.
The woman travelled on flight JQ570 from Melbourne to Brisbane, which arrived in Brisbane at 7pm on 5 January.
Passengers on that flight will be contacted.
Queensland health minister Yvette D’Ath said that Queensland had adopted a new hotel quarantine protocol which would prevent someone from being released from quarantine until genomic testing was complete.
She said:
What is important is the scenario that we have now seen from this woman which is leaving on Day 10, not having an exit test, and importantly not having the genome sequencing known until after she was released would not be occurring now.
So in Queensland, every person who tests positive in Queensland for Covid, their genome sequencing is done at the same time and the results would be known before they are released, to know whether they have the UK variant or any other variant for that matter, including the South African variant. So we would know that before they are released and also we would be doing an exit testing on anyone who has this other variant. We are pleased that the processes tare now in place, and I understand that this has been agreed to nationally now as well. We would not see anyone with the UK variant being released befor we have that information and they are getting those exit tests.
We thank this woman for her cooperation overnight. I’m sure it’s not easy to have gone through full quarantine, plus isolation, only to finally get to come home to her family and be tested again and find out that she is still positive.
Young has been asked whether the woman who travelled from Victoria was infectious while on the domestic Jetstar flight on 5 January. She says:
I don’t know. She would have been very, very at the end of her infectious period, but she did test positive yesterday.
Did Victorian officials think she was negative for the virus when they let her fly?
Young:
No, they followed the previous protocol which is that you didn’t need exit testing, because if you remember, a lot of people continued to excrete the virus up to 120 days after their illness is complete. So we removed the requirement of exit testing quite some time ago. People needed to have had no symptoms for a minimum of three days, which certainly was the case, or at least 10 days from when they were tested, and it is whichever is the longest. So you’ve got to have had first no symptoms for three days, and then second, at least 10 days since you tested. So she met those two criteria, so therefore she was allowed to leave isolation.
Queensland’s chief health officer, Dr Jeannette Young, said a woman with the UK variant of the virus flew on a domestic Jetstar flight from Melbourne to Brisbane on 5 January.
The woman had arrived in Victoria from the UK on 26 December. It’s not quite clear why she was able to fly domestically after just 10 days, not the standard 14 days in quarantine.
Young said:
Late yesterday we were notified that a case that had been confirmed in Victoria had moved up to Queensland and the genome sequence result had come back and she was positive for the UK variant.
She arrived into Victoria on 26 December flying in from the UK She got tested in hotel quarantine there on 27 December, and she was found to be positive. So she was then isolated and did the 10 days required isolation, cleared all her symptoms, and was allowed to leave Victoria and fly to Queensland on 5 January….
We are just confirming the details of which flight because there were a number of Jetstar flights that evening. So we are confirming that at the moment with her. Then she travelled up to Maleny [a town on the Sunshine Coast] where her parents live and she has been staying with her parents. Her parents have been tested and we’re working through any close contacts that need to be looked at there. She lives in a house with her parents in the outskirts there of Maleny.
We got her tested here yesterday and she is still testing positive, so that’s why we are now following through with her contacts. The risk is extremely low, very, very, very low because she is right at the end of her potential infectious period, and with a normal variant, we would not be at all concerned. 10 days is more than sufficient and she is now up to day 15. So it would not be a concern, but because of this new variant, we are just being ultra cautious which is why we re-tested her when Victoria let us know that she had the new variant and we found that she is still excreting virus, so we are just working that through at the moment.
We will be contact tracing those people on the flight where she sat, the two rows in front, behind, either side, and we will be doing that, and we will be putting out messaging for other people on that flight to be aware and get tested if they develop any symptoms. And anyone who lives in that Maleny and that area around Maleny, if they develop any symptoms, could they please come forward immediately and get tested.As I stress, this is very, very, very low risk, but it is not zero risk, so we are just taking all of those precautions.
Palaszczuk said authorities would continue to monitor the situation closely over the next two days.
Some 14,784 tests were conducted in Queensland in the past 24-hours.
Can I just remind everyone that in that Greater Brisbane area, we have 178 clinics that are currently open. So if you have any symptoms whatsoever, please go and get tested. Of course, we are doing this because of the highly infectious UK strain.
Can I thank everyone who has been wearing a mask. On my way in here this morning I passed several people who were walking their dogs or cycling and they all had their masks on, so thank you very much everyone for doing the right thing. We’ve got to keep it up for the next couple of days.
She also urged people to be kind to supermarket workers. Shoppers in Brisbane were panic buying yesterday, so it’s an important reminder.
Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is giving a press conference in Brisbane now.
There are no new cases in Queensland overnight, which is good news.
Anthony Albanese is in hospital “badly shaken but ok” after a serious car accident in his Sydney electorate on Friday.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese;s car was written off in an accident in Sydney on Friday. The 57-year-old remained in hospital on Saturday morning.
Albanese swerved but the cars collided, with the front driver’s side of his car bearing the brunt of the impact. His dark grey Toyota Camry was written off.
NSW Police have said the 17-year-old driver of the Range Rover was not injured. The teenager, from Beverley Hills, returned a negative breath test at the scene and has been issued with an infringement notice for negligent driving.
Albanese was treated by paramedics at the scene and taken to Royal Prince Alfred hospital in a stable condition, where he remained overnight.
A spokesman for his office said the 57-year-old was “badly shaken but ok”. He has not broken any bones but was kept in hospital overnight for observation because doctors were concerned he may have sustained internal injuries.
World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called on countries that have ordered excess doses to immediately hand them over to the COVAX vaccine-sharing facility.
WHO tells rich countries to stop cutting the Covid vaccine queue – video
The push to have an Indigenous voice to government and parliament is entering a four-month consultation period, with the government again dodging any timeframe for implementing the measure.
A 239-page interim report on the process of designing an Indigenous voice was released this morning, and is being heralded by the Federal government as a significant milestone.
It spells out some of the proposals for how Indigenous people could have a say on matters before parliament.
But the report does not set any timeframe for when constitutional recognition could become subject to a referendum or introduced to parliament.
Indigenous affairs minister Ken Wyatt said in a statement:
Over the last 12 months, more than 52 members across three co-design groups have worked through options for what the Indigenous Voice might look like and how it might operate.
Together with group members, we are now seeking feedback so they can refine their final recommendations to Government. All Australians are invited to have their say and further shape the proposals.
I want to ensure the voices of all 800,000 Indigenous Australians can be heard. The more people that provide their feedback, the greater chance we have to refine the best possible options and set up structures that enjoy long-term success.
Prof Marcia Langton, who is the co-chair of the Indigenous voice senior advisory group, said the proposals were not final, and people should make sure they helped guide the process. She said:
Now it’s time for everyone to consider them and provide comment so that we can put a well consulted final proposal to Government. Your feedback will help us make sure the final proposal is one that can work for all Australians.
The report finds that while the group has been encouraged by the government’s response to the pandemic, which largely helped keep Covid-19 from Indigenous communities, the destruction of Juukan Gorge showed more had to be done to ensure Indigenous voices were listened to.
It found:
The response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the very low numbers of cases in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations highlight what can be achieved when the Australian Government listens to, and works with, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have a say in the laws and policies that affect them.
Conversely, the destruction of sacred sites at Juukan Gorge is just one example that has occurred during the co-design process, which shows the negative impact when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices are not heard.
You can read the full report and the consultation material here.
More than 6.5m people in the United States have received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has said.
As of Friday morning, the CDC said it had administered 6,688,231 first doses and distributed some 22,137,350 doses, Reuters reported.
That includes both the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines.
A total of 4,060,225 vaccine doses were distributed for use in long-term care facilities and 693,246 people in the facilities got their first dose, the agency said.
In non-coronavirus news, quite a lot of snow has fallen in Spain. It is causing chaos on the roads, particularly in Madrid which has seen its heaviest snowfall in 50 years.
Vehicles remain stuck in the M30 ringroad in Madrid due to a heavy snow storm on Friday. Photograph: Óscar del Pozo/AFP/Getty Images
The rare snowfall has been brought by Storm Filomena. More on this from AFP:
As the snow showed no signs of letting up, Madrid’s Barajas airport halted all incoming and outgoing flights.
“For safety reasons, operations have been stopped at Airport AS Madrid-Barajas, until visibility is improved. The work to clear the runways continues in order to resume operations as soon as possible BorrascaFilomena,” it tweeted.
The blizzard also caused havoc on the roads, with nearly 400 affected across Spain and hundreds of vehicles stranded in the snow and ice.
The worst-hit regions were Castilla La Mancha, Valencia and Madrid, with the capital seeing its heaviest snowfall since 1971, Spain’s public television said.
Hours of intense snow which was still falling by 2100 GMT cut off the city’s two main ringroads, the M30 and the M40, and a red alert was declared in the city centre where police struggled to help people stranded in vehicles.
The transport authority said the snow had disrupted traffic on almost 400 main roads, where in many cases lorries and heavy goods vehicles were unable to pass, while many roads were only passable with snow chains.
On the secondary road network, more than 50 roads were impassable and around 170 roads required chains.
And hundreds of lorry drivers were held up across the country.
The AEMET weather agency described the situation as “exceptional and most likely historic”.
AEMET had earlier warned another 20 centimetres (eight inches) of snow was expected in Madrid, the high central plains and the nearby mountain ranges, which could rise to 50 centimetres in higher areas.
High-speed trains between Madrid and Valencia were cancelled, the Renfe rail network said.
Forecasters said the heavy snow would continue until Sunday after which it would subside gradually as Storm Filomena begins moving northeast, although the temperatures would remain exceptionally low.
The Australian government suspended mutual obligation requirements for welfare recipients in greater Brisbane in response to the three-day lockdown.
Mutual obligation requirements for people on the jobseeker payment have been suspended until next Sunday, 17 January, meaning people will not have their payment suspended for failing to attend an appointment with an employment service or failing to attend work for the dole. More information here.
Original News : https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2021/jan/08/coronavirus-live-news-poorest-countries-to-get-vaccine-in-weeks-says-who-brazil-deaths-pass-200000
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