2 WHO MEMBERS PROBING COVID ORIGIN IN CHINA DENIED ENTRY
BEIJING: The World Health Organization’s (WHO) mission to trace the origins of Covid-19 got off to a rocky start on Thursday, with two members of the 15-person delegation denied entry to China after failing to clear health screening procedures.
The two experts were stopped from boarding a plane to the city of Wuhan after testing positive for Covid-19 antibodies in bloodbased serology tests during transit in Singapore, even though they tested negative for Covid-19 in swab tests, Dow Jones reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. The WHO later confirmed that two scientists were stuck in the city-state as video showed the others arriving in Wuhan around noon.The development came as China on Thursday reported its first Covid-19-related death in eight months while it logged the highest single-day tally of 138 new infections since March last year.
BEIJING/LONDON: The World Health Organization’s (WHO) mission to trace the origins of Covid-19 got off to a rocky start on Thursday, with two members of the 15-person delegation denied entry to China after failing to clear health screening procedures.
The two experts were stopped from boarding a plane to the city of Wuhan after testing positive for Covid-19 antibodies in bloodbased serology tests during transit in Singapore, even though they tested negative for Covid-19 in swab tests, Dow Jones reported, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter. The WHO later confirmed that two scientists were stuck in the city-state as video showed the others arriving in Wuhan around noon.
The development came as China on Thursday reported its first Covid-19-related death in eight months while it logged the highest single-day tally of 138 new infections since March last year. More than 28 million people are under lockdown in the north of the country and one province has declared an emergency, as daily Covid-19 numbers climb after months of reporting only a handful of cases.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian sidestepped questions about the two scientists who were denied entry and how long the group members will be quarantined, but said their visas will be valid “long enough for them to conduct their work in China”. The Communist Party-backed Global
Times reported earlier the quarantine period would last 14 days.
“The international experts team will undergo quarantine in Wuhan, during which time they will conduct video conference with Chinese experts,” Zhao told a regular briefing in Beijing on Thursday afternoon.
The experts will work with Chinese scientists to determine the source of the pandemic, as they still store the strains for analysis and study purposes, Ihor Perehinets, a technical
adviser at the WHO’s European office, said at a media briefing.
UK study: Past case gives immunity for 5 months
People who have been infected with Covid-19 are immune to contracting the virus again for at least five months, according to a major study by Public Health England (PHE), which examined more than 6,500 people between June and December last year.
The study released on Thursday, however, cautions that those with such immunity may still be able to carry the virus in their noses and throats and therefore pose a risk of transmitting it to others.
PHE scientists working on the study have concluded that naturally acquired immunity as a result of past infections provide 83% protection against reinfection, compared to people who have not had the disease before.
PHE said that the study called SIREN will continue to assess whether protection may last for longer, which means that people who contracted the disease in the first wave may now be vulnerable to catching it again.
Susan Hopkins, SIREN study lead, said, “We now know that most of those who have had the virus, and developed antibodies, are protected from reinfection, but this is not total and we do not yet know how long protection lasts. Crucially, we believe people may still be able to pass the virus on.”
‘Researchers find Covid variant unique to Kenya’
Scientists have discovered a coronavirus variant in the East African nation that is yet to be detected elsewhere in the world, the Daily Nation newspaper reported, citing Charles Agoti, a researcher at the Kenya Medical Research Institute.
The variant was picked up in the southern Taita Taveta county and is spreading around the nation. Researchers at the institute are still studying whether it’s more easily spread and if it causes more severe illness, according to the newspaper.