November 11 coronavirus news

Russia’s sovereign wealth fund said Wednesday that early analysis of data from its Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine suggests it is 92% effective.

The interim analysis came after 20 confirmed Covid-19 cases among Phase 3 trial participants who received the vaccine or a placebo, according to a press release from the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). 

The RDIF, which funded vaccine production and is responsible for selling it globally, said more than 20,000 people have received their first dose of the vaccine as part of the Phase 3 trial, and 16,000 participants have received the second dose. 

Russia's announcement follows Pfizer and BioNTech’s announcement on Monday that their Covid-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective. However, Pfizer’s interim analysis was based on more than 90 confirmed coronavirus cases among trial participants. Pfizer said Monday it had enrolled 43,538 participants in its Phase 3 trial and 38,955 volunteers have received a second dose. The vaccines are different; while Pfizer’s is based on a messenger RNA platform, Russia’s is based on an inactivated adenoviral vector. 

According to RDIF’s news release, no unexpected adverse events were identified during the Phase 3 trial. Some who received the Russian vaccine had short-term minor adverse events such as pain at the injection site, flu-like syndrome including fever, weakness, fatigue and headaches. 

The Russian Phase 3 trial will continue for six more months and data from the trial will be published in an international medical journal following a peer review, RDIF said in a statement. 

The RDIF told CNN that Russia will publish clinical trial protocol for Sputnik-V in November and the next interim analysis will be at 39 coronavirus cases. 

Separate from the ongoing Phase 3 trials, in September the vaccine was first administered to a group of volunteers from the “red zones” of Russian hospitals. Ten-thousand vaccinated volunteers, including medics and other high-risk groups, were observed, RDIF said, and “confirmed the vaccine’s efficacy rate of over 90 percent.” 

Russia drew criticism when it announced the world's first approved coronavirus vaccine for public use in August -- even before crucial Phase 3 trials had been completed.  

Results from the first human tests of Sputnik V were published in The Lancet in September. Only 76 people were involved in the trial -- too few to determine if the Russian vaccine was safe and effective. But the peer-reviewed report said there were only mild adverse effects reported and the vaccine triggered an immune response in trial participants. 

Stefano Bozzini, 81, couldn’t visit his wife in the hospital due to coronavirus restrictions. But instead of just heading home, he grabbed his accordion instead.

Wearing a red sweater, navy pants, a feathered hat and a mask, Bozzini serenaded Carla Sacchi, his wife of 47 years, with a medley of love songs from the street below.

Bozzini opened his performance with Engelbert Humperdinck's "Spanish Eyes" before moving onto a selection of his wife’s favorites as she watched on from the first floor of the hospital in Castel San Giovanni, a town in Italy’s northern Emilia-Romagna region.

According to the Italian news agency ANSA, Bozzini is a retired member of the Italian army’s Alpini mountain infantry, whose unit nicknamed him “Gianni Morandi of the Alpines" after the famed Italian singer.

The uplifting moment has gone viral in Italy, with Bozzini’s daughter writing on Facebook: “That is my daddy... the one and only.”

Read the full story here.

The European Union is following reports of coronavirus outbreaks in mink farms "extremely closely," Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides said Wednesday during a press conference.

Last week, the Danish government ordered a cull of its entire mink population due to concerns about a virus mutation that had arisen in infected mink.

On Tuesday, it backtracked on the order, after realizing it had no legal authority to mandate the killing of mink on farms unaffected by coronavirus. It will now merely "recommend" that farmers kill all mink, according to an email sent to breeders Tuesday morning. New legislation is being put to parliament to legally mandate a cull. It normally takes 30 days to pass new legislation.

“We’re very aware of the situation of the mink farms in Denmark, it's a situation that as the Commission and with the ECDC (the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control) we are following very carefully. I would also say that infection in mink has been reported in other member states, and in other third countries," Kyriakides said. 

"Of course, the measures taken in Denmark are national competence, but I would like to tell you that we are expecting a risk assessment from the ECDC in the coming days, so we'll be able to have more details on that, but we are following the situation extremely closely," she added. 

Read more about the Danish mink farms here.

Nursing homes in the United States are still taking days to get back Covid-19 test results as many shun the Trump administration's central strategy to limit the spread of the virus among old and sick Americans.

In late summer, federal officials began distributing to nursing homes millions of point-of-care antigen tests, which can be given on-site and report the presence or absence of the virus within minutes. By January, the Department of Health and Human Services is slated to send roughly 23 million rapid tests.

But as of October 25, 38% of the nation's roughly 15,000 nursing homes have yet to use a point-of-care test, a KHN analysis of nursing home records shows.

The numbers suggest a basic disagreement among the Trump administration, state health officials and nursing home administrators over the best way to test this population and how to strike the right balance between speed and accuracy. Many nursing homes still primarily send samples out to laboratories, using a type of test that's considered more reliable but can take days to deliver results.

As a result, in 29% of the approximately 13,000 facilities that provided their testing speed to the government, results for residents took an average of three days or more, the analysis found. Just 17% of nursing homes reported their average turnaround time was less than a day, and the remainder tended to get results in one or two days. Wait times for test results of staff members were similar.

Read the full story here.

The European Union has formally authorized a fourth contract with US pharmaceutical firm Pfizer and German lab BioNTech to procure up to 300 million doses of their candidate coronavirus vaccine, should it be proven to be safe and effective against the virus. 

“In the wake of Monday's promising announcement by BioNTech and Pfizer on the prospects for their vaccine, I'm very happy to announce today's agreement ... to purchase 300 million doses,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced in a statement on Wednesday.

According to BioNTech, the contract will guarantee the supply of 200 million doses, with an option to procure an additional 100 million doses. The pharmaceutical company says it expects deliveries to begin by the end of 2020, pending approval of the vaccine by the European Medical Agency. 

“As a company founded in the heart of Europe, we are looking forward to supplying millions of people upon regulatory approval,” BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin said in a company statement Wednesday. 

“Our aim is to develop a safe and effective vaccine to contribute to bringing this pandemic to an end. Only through joint efforts will we be able to do so,” Sahin added. 

Read more about the Turkish-German power couple who developed the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine here.

Hong Kong and Singapore will launch a new "air travel bubble," on November 22, a scheme that will allow residents to travel between the two Asian hubs without requiring quarantine or restrictive control measures.

At first, the air travel bubble, or ATB, will allow one flight a day into each city, with a maximum of 200 travelers per flight, Singapore’s civil aviation authority said Wednesday.

By December 7, the bubble will allow two flights a day into each city, with each flight carrying a maximum of 200 travelers, they said.

People hoping to fly between the two cities will have to meet certain parameters before doing so, such as no travel history in the previous 14 days. They will also have to undergo compulsory Covid-19 testing before flying.

The Civil Aviation of Singapore called the program a “milestone arrangement” that “seeks to revive air travel in a safe and progressive way.”

They did, however, caution that should the situation deteriorate in either city, the ATB will be suspended.

The launch of the ATB, coupled with the small amount of Covid-19 infections in Singapore and Hong Kong reflect a remarkable turnaround after both places had both experienced soaring infection numbers earlier this year.

Read the full story here.

The UK government will issue new guidance to allow university students a seven-day window in which they will be able to travel home for Christmas, its universities minister said Wednesday. 

Speaking to Sky News, the universities minister said that the current four-week national lockdown in England -- which is due to end on December 2 -- will ensure that “students pose a much reduced risk” to their families and communities. 

“Universities will stagger that date to stagger the flow around the country and ease the pressure on public transport,” she added. 

In an interview with LBC Radio on Wednesday, Donelan also confirmed that the government will be working with universities to “roll out rapid testing” for students, but cautioned that testing will not be guaranteed for all students. 

“This plan is not relying on testing, this plan is relying on the period of national restrictions reducing the risk of infection and that window that we have created for them to go home, complemented with testing targeting the most at-risk universities and the most at-risk areas,” Donelan said. 

The small South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu has reported its first coronavirus infection since the pandemic began.

The asymptomatic case was a 23-year-old man who returned to the island on November 4 after traveling to the US, Vanuatu's health ministry said Tuesday.

He tested positive during a routine screening on the fifth day of his quarantine.

"Physical distancing and personal protection measures were applied and maintained during the flight, throughout the arrival process, during transport to and during registration at the quarantine facility," the ministry said in a press release. 

The patient will remain in isolation until health clearance is given, the ministry added. 

Prominent Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh has tested positive for Covid-19 after being released from jail, according to her husband Reza Khandan.

Khandan said in a Facebook post Tuesday that the couple were screened for coronavirus when they went to the hospital for Nasrin's cardiological test.

"Today, it has been announced Nasrin's test was positive and my result has not come yet," the post read.

Sotoudeh is well known for representing human rights defenders, dissidents and women who protested against the compulsory wearing of a headscarf in Iran. 

The human rights lawyer was temporarily released from Gharchak Prison on Saturday in the city of Varamin, south of Tehran, due to deteriorating health, according to the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI). 

Sotoudeh is serving a 38-year sentence, 12 years of which she must fulfill before becoming eligible for parole, according to previous CNN reporting citing her family.