As the world marks a grim milestone of 5 million COVID-19 deaths, public health officials are keeping a close watch on a substrain of the Delta variant.
COVID-19: 5 Million+ Deaths Globally, a Lower U.S. Surge and More
As the world marks a grim milestone of 5 million COVID-19 deaths, public health officials are keeping a close watch on a substrain of the Delta variant. For that and more, read on.
Global COVID-19 Deaths Reach 5 Million
It’s a milestone no one wanted to reach. There have now been more than 5 million people who died from COVID-19 in less than two years. According to the Johns Hopkins University data, as of November 1, there were 5,000,425 COVID-19-related deaths worldwide. The number in the U.S. is 745,836, the country with the highest number.
Although vaccines are largely available in many parts of the world, although not as much in low- and middle-income countries yet, the number of cases appears to be surging in many places, including Europe and Russia. Although it has increased, it does seem to be a lower surge than earlier surges. Europe makes up 57% of global new weekly cases. The largest drop in new cases was in the African region (21%) and the Western Pacific region (17%). The highest numbers of new cases were in the U.S., with 512,956 new cases, a 12% decrease from the previous week. It was followed by U.K. and Russia.
U.S. Cases Less Than Half of Pandemic’s Most Recent Peak
Despite a surge, the number of U.S. cases of COVID-19 is less than half of the most recent peak. This number suggests the U.S. might be past the summer wave of Delta variant infections. The 72,000 new cases per day over the past week is down 58% from the high of 172,500 average daily cases on September 13. Hospitalizations are also dropping.
“Personally, I’m optimistic that this may be one of the last major surges, and the reason for that is because so many people have been vaccinated, and also because a lot of people have had COVID,” said Dr. Arturo Casadevall, chair of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “We now have a lot of immunity in the population.”
Considering the Delta-Plus COVID-19 Variant
Although not yet a problem, and possibly not even a big problem, health officials around the world are keeping an eye on a subvariant of the Delta strain labeled AY.4.2, or sometimes called Delta-Plus. Most of the cases reported so far have been in the U.K., although it has been seen in at least 42 other countries, including the U.S., India, and Russia.
In its weekly epidemiological update last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) said, “An increase in AY.4.2 sequence submissions have been observed since July.” Of them, 93% were in the U.K. The U.K.’s Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is calling it a “variant under investigation,” but not yet a “variant of concern.”
The AY.4.2 has three new mutations from Delta, two in the spike protein. So far, it has not become a dominant strain anywhere it has been identified, and maybe won’t. It’s not yet clear if it is more transmissible than the Delta variant or even if it can evade immunity better. “We don’t have enough data to point one way or another,” said Dr. Patrick Tang, the division chief of Pathology Sciences at Sidra Medicine in Qatar.
Australia’s Vaxxas to Launch Clinical Trial of Needle-Free COVID Vaccine Patch
Vaxxas, based in Brisbane, Australia, is launching a clinical trial of its COVID-19 vaccine with needle-free patches early next year. In animal trials using the University of Texas-developed Hexapro vaccine, the technology was effective.
The technology uses a “high-density microarray patch” with thousands of micro projections coated with the vaccine. When placed on the skin for only a few seconds, it transports the vaccine to immune cells under the skin’s surface. It could potentially be self-administered and seems to have a better immune response than the same vaccine with a syringe.
