Experts from the World Health Organization stated at the Geneva headquarters on June 21 that Delta, a mutant strain of the COVID-19 virus, has now spread to 92 countries. Although it is more transmissible and the neutralizing antibody titers produced by the human body against the Delta strain after being vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine have been reduced, the vaccine is still effective in preventing severe illness and reducing deaths.
Delta strain
is more spread than the alpha strain
Maria Van Kelkhover, the technical leader of the WHO health emergency project, said at the press conference that day that the delta strain has been detected in 92 countries and regions so far. The delta strain is one of the COVID-19 mutant viruses that have been marked by the World Health Organization as "requiring attention". It was first discovered in India in October 2020.
Van Kelkhover stated that the COVID-19 mutant strain Alpha, which was first discovered in the UK, has spread rapidly around the world, and the Delta strain is more easily spread than the Alpha strain. At present, many countries have begun to relax public health and social distancing measures. If they relax too early or too quickly, the delta strain will spread quickly, given that the current population has not yet been fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Van Kelkhover pointed out that a recent study in Scotland suggested that the delta strain may increase the risk of patients being admitted to the hospital. But this is only a preliminary study carried out in a single country, and the conclusions need to be further verified. There is currently no indication that the Delta strain will cause the death rate of COVID-19 to increase.
Although a recent study published in The Lancet showed that against the Delta strain, the titers of neutralizing antibodies produced by the human body after being vaccinated against COVID-19 have been reduced, but Van Kelkhover emphasized that the vaccine It is still effective in preventing severe illness and reducing deaths. In addition, she urged the public to take protective measures while ensuring the two doses of vaccines. Van Kelkhover warned that although the vaccine is still effective against the current virus, there may be a series of mutations in the virus in the future that will cause the vaccine to actually lose its effectiveness. This is exactly what we need to ensure prevention. For this reason, the spread of the virus should be avoided and reduced as much as possible, because the wider the virus spreads, the greater the chance of mutation.
To be established in South Africa
COVID-19 vaccine production technology transfer center
World Health Organization Director-General Tan Desai said on the 21st that it plans to establish a COVID-19 vaccine production technology transfer center in South Africa to help African countries produce vaccines.
According to Reuters, the WHO hopes that this technology transfer center can provide pharmaceutical companies in low- and middle-income countries in Africa with proprietary technology and production licenses for the production of mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) vaccines.
At present, two South African pharmaceutical companies, South Africa Biovaccine Company and Everigan Biologics and Vaccine Company have joined this project. The WHO is negotiating with Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. and Modena in the United States, hoping that they can join the project and share their mRNA vaccine technology.
However, the WHO said that even if the two US pharmaceutical companies agree to join, it will still take 9 to 12 months for African pharmaceutical companies to produce a COVID-19 vaccine.
According to the Associated Press, the recent epidemic in South Africa has intensified, and hospitals are under tremendous pressure. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said on the 21st: “In the past few weeks, the number of new cases has increased dramatically. In the past week, the number of new cases per day has increased from less than 800 in early April to more than 13,000.”
The latest data released by the World Health Organization on the 21st showed that the total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide reached 17,820.26.1 million.
The latest data from the WHO website shows that as of 18:23 on the 21st Central European Time (0:23 on the 22nd, Beijing time), the number of confirmed cases worldwide increased by 336,450 compared with the previous day, reaching 178,202,610; the number of deaths increased by 7,764. Reached 3865738 cases.
4 Chinese vaccines listed
List of COVID-19 vaccine products available for export
The Ministry of Commerce and other four departments issued an announcement on the 22nd, listing four vaccines that have been approved for domestic market with conditional listing on the list of COVID-19 vaccine products available for export, and expressed their support for the listed Chinese vaccine manufacturers to use their own products. The list will be adjusted dynamically according to the approval and listing situation of the State Food and Drug Administration.
In order to further support countries in fighting the epidemic and comprehensively expanding international cooperation in vaccines, the Ministry of Commerce, in conjunction with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Health Commission, and the State Food and Drug Administration, issued the "Announcement on Announcement of the List of New Coronavirus Vaccine Products Available for Export." Among them, 4 vaccines from Sinopharm Zhongsheng Beijing Company, Beijing Kexing Zhongwei Company, Kangsino Company, and Sinopharm Zhongsheng Wuhan Biological Products Research Institute Co., Ltd. were included in the list.
"In order to ensure the quality and safety of vaccine products and improve trade efficiency, we support the Chinese vaccine manufacturers listed in the list to organize exports on their own, focusing on increasing product supply and stabilizing market expectations, so that all countries, especially developing countries, can use it. Vaccines are accessible and affordable." said Li Xinggan, Director of the Department of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Commerce. At the same time, he will continue to support Chinese vaccine manufacturers to strengthen cooperation with the WHO "COVID-19 Vaccine Implementation Plan" and support foreign joint R&D and joint production of vaccines. .
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