What you need to know about the coronavirus right now


Reuters | Updated: 10-05-2022 18:12 IST | Created: 10-05-2022 18:11 IST
What you need to know about the coronavirus right now
Representative image Image Credit: ANI

Here's what you need to know about the pandemic right now: Tesla stutters under tighter Shanghai lockdown; Beijing keeps hunting COVID

Tesla operated its Shanghai plant well below capacity on Tuesday, showing the problems factories face trying to ramp up output under a tightening COVID lockdown, while China's capital kept up its fight with a small but stubborn outbreak. Many of the hundreds of companies reopening factories in Shanghai in recent weeks have faced challenges getting production lines back up to speed while keeping workers on-site in a "closed-loop" system.

China's tough zero-COVID measures remain essential to defeat the pandemic and buy time to improve vaccination rates and develop new treatments, senior health advisers wrote in recently published reports. Vaccine developer BioNTech has extended by six months to October a Phase II clinical trial of its COVID vaccine in China, a registry of such trials showed. The vaccine is one of the most widely used worldwide but has yet to receive approval in China.

Scientists question costly mass COVID checks For many people worldwide, having cotton swabs thrust up their nose or down their throat to test for COVID has become a routine and familiar annoyance.

But two years into the pandemic, health officials in some countries are questioning the merits of repeated, mass testing when it comes to containing infections, particularly considering the billions it costs. Novavax 2022 COVID vaccine deliveries off to slow start

Novavax on Monday revealed a sharp drop in first-quarter COVID research funding and said it shipped less than a fourth of the total vaccine deliveries slated for 2022. It sold 31 million doses of the vaccine in the quarter, a small fraction of the 2 billion shots it plans to send around the world in 2022.

WHO, Gavi not planning vaccine buys from South Africa's Aspen The World Health Organization and its COVID vaccine partner Gavi have no immediate plans to buy shots made by Aspen Pharmacare, the two bodies said, dealing a blow to Africa's efforts to develop its own vaccine production capacity.

Aspen completed a deal in March to package, sell and distribute Johnson & Johnson's vaccine in what was lauded as a game-changing moment for an under-vaccinated continent frustrated by sluggish Western handouts. COVID vaccine makers shift focus to boosters

COVID vaccine makers are shifting gears and planning for a smaller, more competitive booster shot market after delivering as many doses as fast as they could over the last 18 months. Executives at the biggest COVID vaccine makers including Pfizer and Moderna said they believe most people who wanted to get vaccinated against COVID have already done so - more than 5 billion people worldwide.

Texas doctor calls U.S. COVID deaths nearing 1 million 'mindblowing' In the early days of the pandemic, pulmonologist Joseph Varon offered an opinion that made headlines around the world and went viral on social media. He was fighting two wars, he said: one against COVID and one against stupidity.

As the United States nears the grim milestone of 1 million coronavirus-linked deaths, Varon, chief of critical care and COVID at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas said only one of those battles has been won. 

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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