‘T Cells triggered by common cold also fend off virus’

LONDON: High levels of protective immune cells that fight some common colds also made people less likely to contract Covid-19 in a study.

Researchers found higher levels of T cells against certain colds in people who didn’t develop Covid while living with someone who had the disease, according to a study released on Monday by the UK’S Imperial College London. The prior illnesses were caused by other coronaviruses related to Sars-cov-2.

The findings, published in the journal Nature Communications, provide further evidence of the protective effects of T cells, an arm of the immune system that’s gaining attention as the pandemic stretches into its third year and new variants like Omicron erode vaccine protection.

“Being exposed to the Sarscov-2 virus doesn’t always result in infection, and we’ve been keen to understand why,” said Rhia Kundu, the study’s lead author. “We found that high levels of pre-existing T cells, created by the body when infected with other human coronaviruses like the common cold, can protect.”

The UK scientists analysed blood samples from 52 people who lived with someone who had tested positive for Covid, of which half didn’t become infected.

US sets hospital record

Covid-19 hospitalisations in the US reached a fresh high of 132,646, according to a Reuters tally on Monday, surpassing the record of 132,051 set in January last year, amid a surge of the highly contagious Omicron variant. Hospitalisations have increased steadily since late-december, doubling in the last three weeks, as Omicron quickly overtook Delta as the dominant version of the virus in the US.

Beijing on alert

China’s first community-based Omicron outbreak has partially locked down the northern city of Tianjin and put officials in neighbouring Beijing on high alert with health authorities tracking down cases from the same transmission chain to the central province of Henan.

Fears grew about a cluster of infections in the northern city of Tianjin, which was linked to two Omicron cases reported Monday in the city of Anyang around 400km away.meanwhile, city officials said in a statement on Sunday that “the general public should not leave Tianjin unless essential to do so”.

With inputs from Sutirtho Patranobis in Beijing