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You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 / COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Thursday / Friday, June 24-25

COVID-19 Coronavirus Updates: Thursday / Friday, June 24-25

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Antibodies triggered by two Chinese COVID-19 vaccines are less effective against the Delta variant compared with other strains but the shots still offer protection, a Chinese disease control researcher told state media…

In an interview aired by China Central Television late on Thursday, Feng Zijian, researcher and former deputy director at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, did not provide further details.

Without naming the two vaccines, Feng said they fell into the category of inactivated vaccines, which contain “killed” coronavirus that cannot replicate in human cells.

Five out of the seven domestically developed vaccines in China’s mass inoculation scheme are inactivated vaccines. These include shots from Sinovac Biotech and Sinopharm used in countries such as Brazil, Bahrain and Chile…

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Not conclusive, IMO, but intriguing:

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Reader Interactions

27Comments

  1. 1.

    NeenerNeener

    Cuomo lifted the state of emergency for NY yesterday. Let’s hope it wasn’t too soon.

  2. 2.

    Amir Khalid

    The Ministry of Health has assured Malaysians that it is perfectly safe to eat durians soon after you’ve been vaccinated against Covid-19. Deputy Minister Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali was refuting a viral rumour that a man had died after getting his shot and then partaking of the fruit.

  3. 3.

    Cermet

    @Amir Khalid: And you are/will be vaccinated today?

    Great news that the polio vaccine appears to work against getting Covid! That is a cheap, easy to handle, oral vaccine.

  4. 4.

    Matt McIrvin

    The Boston Globe story is heartbreaking–I remember that period in April when it seemed like people I knew all over the country were rushing to get vaccinated, and I had to just wait my turn. To catch it then, knowing a good vaccine existed, would have been particularly galling. My cousin in PA caught it around then and has had a rough time with long COVID symptoms.

  5. 5.

    Argiope

    @Amir Khalid: I think if I were of a mind to create a conspiracy theory around fruit, it would be tough not to choose durian.  That wacky combination of smells-like-natural-gas and tastes-divine-in-an-icy-smoothie just seems suss from the get-go, not to mention those exterior spikes.  How do we know durian didn’t leak from a lab?  Just asking questions //

  6. 6.

    YY_Sima Qian

    On 6/24 China reported 0 new domestic confirmed & 0 new domestic asymptomatic cases.

    Guangdong Province did not report any new domestic confirmed cases.

    • Guangzhou did not reported any new domestic positive cases. To date, the outbreak in the city has accumulated 146 domestic confirmed cases & 7 domestic asymptomatic cases, with 41 domestic confirmed cases having recovered. 2 sub-districts were re-designated as Low Risk. 1 sub-district & 3 residential compounds are at Medium Risk.
    • Foshan did not reported any new domestic positive cases. 1 residential compound & 1 residential building remain at Medium Risk.
    • Shenzhen did not report any new domestic positive cases. 1 residential compound remains at Medium Risk.
    • Dongguan did not report any new domestic positive cases. 1 residential building & a college campus remain at Medium Risk.

    Imported Cases

    On 6/24, China reported 24 new imported confirmed cases, 20 imported asymptomatic cases, 7 imported suspect case:

    • Shanghai Municipality – 6 confirmed cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from Germany & 1 each from Spain, the UK (via Germany), the US & Taiwan; 7 suspect cases, no information released
    • Guangzhou in Guangdong Province – 3 confirmed cases, 1 Chinese national each returning from Uganda, the UAE & Indonesia; 4 asymptomatic cases, 2 Chinese nationals returning from Cambodia & 1 each from Indonesia & Myanmar
    • Yangjiang Port in Guangdong Province – 2 confirmed cases, both crew members off a cargo ship w/ last port of call in the Philippines
    • Shenzhen in Guangdong Province – 1 confirmed & 2 asymptomatic cases, all Chinese nationals returning from Cambodia
    • Zhaoqing in Guangdong Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from the Philippines, off a flight that landed at Guangzhou
    • Chengdu in Sichuan Province – 5 confirmed cases (1 previously asymptomatic), 3 Chinese nationals returning from Cambodia & 1 each from the Sudan (via Cairo) & Taiwan
    • Yunnan Province (locations not specified) – 2 confirmed cases, both Chinese nationals returning from Myanmar, via land border crossings
    • Beijing Municipality – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from the UK (via Copenhagen)
    • Tianjin Municipality – 1 confirmed & 2 asymptomatic cases, all Chinese nationals returning from the Philippines
    • Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province – 1 confirmed case (previously asymptomatic), coming from Japan; 2 asymptomatic cases, 1 each coming from Indonesia & Cameroon
    • Changsha in Hunan Province – 1 confirmed & 1 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Lanzhou in Gansu Province – 1 confirmed case, a Chinese national returning from Pakistan; the case arrived at Wuhan in Hubei Province on 5/31, passed through the 14 days of centralized quarantine 4 times, upon release from quarantine on 6/15 the case flew back to Lanzhou & entered home quarantine, tested negative on 6/16 but positive on 6/23
    • Zhengzhou in Henan Province – 2 asymptomatic cases, no information released
    • Shenyang in Liaoning Province – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released
    • Chongqing Municipality – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from the Philippines; the case arrived at Nanjing in Jiangsu Province on 6/7, passed through the 14 days of centralized quarantine & tested negative multiple times, upon release from quarantine on 6/22 the case took high speed rail back to Chongqing & re-entered centralized quarantine, testing negative on 6/24
    • Xiamen in Fujian Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Singapore
    • Jiangsu Province (location not specified) – 1 asymptomatic case, no information released
    • Xi’an in Shaanxi Province – 1 asymptomatic case, a Chinese national returning from Japan, off a flight

    Overall in China, 30 confirmed cases recovered, 18 asymptomatic cases were released from isolation & 2 were reclassified as confirmed cases, and 1,133 individuals were released from quarantine. Currently, there are 486 active confirmed cases in the country (392 imported), 14 in serious condition (9 imported), 463 asymptomatic cases (443 imported), 9 suspect cases (all imported). 19,000 traced contacts are currently  under quarantine.

    As of 6/24, 1,120.643M vaccine doses have been injected in Mainland China, an increase of 24.741M doses in the past 24 hrs.

  7. 7.

    Amir Khalid

    Malaysia’s Director-General of Heath Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reports 5,812 new Covid-19 cases today in his media statement, for a cumulative reported total of 722,659 cases. He also reports 82 new deaths today, for a cumulative total of 4,803 deaths — 0.66% of the cumulative reported total, 0.72% of resolved cases.

    There are currently 60,117 active and contagious cases; 870 are in ICU, 433 of them intubated. Meanwhile, 6,775 more patients have recovered, for a cumulative total of 657,739 patients recovered – 91.02% of the cumulative reported total.

    21 new clusters were reported today. Of the cumulative total of 2,741 clusters, 873 clusters are still active; 1,868 clusters are now inactive.

    5,780 new cases today are local infections. Selangor reports 2,166 local cases: 349 in clusters, 1,048 close-contact screenings, and 769 other screenings. Kuala Lumpur reports 760 local cases: 422 in clusters, 217 close-contact screenings, and 121 other screenings.

    Sarawak reports 673 cases:226 in clusters, 357 close-contact screenings, and 90 other screenings. Negeri Sembilan reports 658 cases: 239 in clusters, 224 close-contact screenings, and 195 other screenings.

    Penang reports 270 cases: 202 in clusters, 40 close-contact screenings, and 28 other screenings. Melaka reports 223 cases: 81 in clusters, 97 close-contact screenings, and 45 other screenings.

    Johor reports 196 cases: 45 in clusters, 107 close-contact screenings, and 44 other screenings. Kedah reports 186 cases: 62 in clusters, 77 close-contact screenings, and 47 other screenings. Sabah reports 156 cases: 30 in clusters, 81 close-contact screenings, and 45 other screenings. Pahang reports 139 cases: 67 in clusters, 50 close-contact screenings, and 22 other screenings. Labuan reports 123 cases: 11 in clusters, 63 close-contact screenings, and 49 other screenings.

    Kelantan reports 98 cases: 49 in clusters, 40 close-contact screenings, and nine other screenings. Perak reports 72 cases: 35 in clusters, 23 close-contact screenings, and 14 other screenings.

    Terengganu reports 46 cases: 20 in clusters, 13 close-contact screenings, and 13 other screenings. Putrajaya reports 14 cases: 12 close-contact screenings and two other screenings. Perlis reports no new cases today.

    32 new cases today are imported: 21 in Selangor, 11 in Kuala Lumpur.

  10. 10.

    Amir Khalid

    @Argiope:
    The funniest food-related urban legend spread among Chinese people here in the 1960s and 1970s: it said that eating pork would make your manhood shrink into your body. Of course it did no euch thing. But that didn’t stop some really insecure/panicky guys from holding on to it with chopsticks while frantically begging their friends to call for an ambulance.

  11. 11.

    Ten Bears

    Still pushing hard to blame it on China, I see, to the point of reverse-engineering a dubious mathematical model to satisfy the answer they were looking for. Pointing the finger a China points three fingers back at the US, Russia and Israel. Me thinks they doest protest too much.

    As likely to have thawed out of the thawing tundra …

  12. 12.

    LiminalOwl

    @trnc: Looks to me like a data-entry problem  on that chart.  My guess, from comparing to other states, is that the “recovered” and “active” entries got flipped.

  13. 13.

    Soprano2

    I saw people on Twitter last night talking about Trump almost dying. Am I a bad person to wish it had been so? I’m sure even that wouldn’t have convinced his cult members that Covid is real and serious, instead they would have spun a wild conspiracy theory about how “the swamp” conspired to kill him off by using the excuse that he had Covid.

  16. 16.

    Argiope

    @Amir Khalid: the chopsticks are definitely the funniest part of the whole thing.  Humans are such a suggestible lot.  I can only imagine the ER visit…… :)

  17. 17.

    Peale

    @Soprano2: I’m not sure if things would have been worse if he died or better. In the long term, probably good. They can erect statues to his martyrdom. I’d rather have to sit through a few dozen maudlin speeches about his great sacrifices as they erect bronze statues in memorial parks than have to worry that he’ll be president again in 2024. Unfortunately, given their propensity to conspiracy and anger junky desires, they probably would have just blamed Hillary and the deep state and nothing would have changed. Since COVID doesn’t really exist for them, they’d just assume he was poisoned because we could never beat such a wonderful guy otherwise. They’d still have tried to install someone else. I guess the only benefit is that the GOP would be openly shooting at each other for the rights to get to head the party.

  18. 18.

    drdavechemist

    @trnc:

    Worldometer’s information page admits that it’s a flawed statistic. California, for example, also shows something like 80% “active cases.” Basically, they just subtract “deaths” and “recovered” from total cases, so if there’s no good mechanism for reporting who has “recovered” (how would you do that?), the number of active cases is artificially large.

    In Rhode Island, it looks like the “recovered” tally is basically only people who were discharged after a hospital stay, so if you were never hospitalized you don’t get counted as “recovered.”

  19. 19.

    Robert Sneddon

    Scotland — 1,747 new cases of COVID-19 reported since yesterday and 2 new deaths. The test positivity rate is 6.9%. The new case rate spiked to nearly 3,000 yesterday although that might have been a data collection glitch and catchup. Hospitalisations and ICU bed occupancy are creeping up but slowly indicating that the number of new cases that are serious enough to require intensive treatment is lower than before, possibly due to the high vaccination rates.

    Over 30,000 vaccinations were carried out in Scotland yesterday, about 50:50 for first and second doses. This number is down on the 40,000-plus vaccinations a day carried out in the previous few weeks. Over 80% of the adult population have received a first dose of vaccine now with about 60% fully vaccinated.

    Despite the high case numbers (about 5x what they were a few weeks ago) the Scottish government is still looking to fully open up shops, pubs, gyms, sports arenas etc. by the middle of July. We’ll see.

  21. 21.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Soprano2:

    I saw people on Twitter last night talking about Trump almost dying. Am I a bad person to wish it had been so? 

    No, you aren’t, and I’m sure more than 600,000 men, women and children would agree.  Unfortunately, more than 600,000 of them are too dead to agree for themselves.

  22. 22.

    trollhattan

    My county’s full vaccination rate remains in the 40s. I do not understand people and wish they were less selfish. I also wish I could fly.

  23. 23.

    Onkel Fritze

    Situation here in Colombia is extremely bad. Seems like almost every day we’re hitting new record numbers. Adjusted by population size, we’re doing about as bad as the US was at it’s worst right now. Authorities seem to have given up on countermeasures altogether. I think because of the public unrest in the last 2 months they don’t want to stir the pot. So while about 250 people are waiting for an ICU bed (!) here in the Valle del Cauca region, they’re opening up schools and night-life again. Heading for disaster full throttle.

    The only usefull thing they are doing is accelerating vaccinations, but a lot of people won’t go. Two weeks after they’ve opened up vaccinations to people 50+, they went to 40+ because vaccine centers and clinics were running empty while only a fraction of eligible people already had the shot. In my experience, Colombians are almost eager to believe all kinds of stupid shit they read on social media, so there’s that. Colombia just got it’s first consignment of the J&J vaccine which is supposed to go to hard-to-reach regions since it’s the only one-shot vaccine. The wife and I had our 2nd Pfizer shot yesterday.

  24. 24.

    Searcher

    The estimated origin timeline of “no earlier than early October” was previously reported in Nature, IIRC.

    The Nature article made it more clear that the simulations basically rule out wide-spread, pre-November spread — you’re basically looking at Patient Zero in early October, like 3-5 people between Patient Zero and the first known case, and maybe a dozen or two people infected in total before the first known patient was likely infected.

    Basically what the simulation says is, if the origin was any earlier, we’d have expected it to explode into a pandemic earlier, or if it didn’t, we’d expect it to have burned itself out after a couple of weeks.  We wouldn’t expect thousands or tens of thousands of cases to go undetected — if not at the time, then when looking at the data retrospectively — and it’s extremely improbable that the virus would manage to be transmitted successfully to exactly 1-2 people per generation to keep going without dying out for long.

  25. 25.

    oldster

    That AP story on Ross Bagne — are we sure that he didn’t die of Kierkegaard? That stuff can be lethal.

  26. 26.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Amir Khalid: Congratulations!

    I am  sure you know, but the 1st dose of the Sinovac vaccines does not confer much protection, especially in light of the Delta variant. You really do need to wait for 2 weeks after the 2nd dose. Furthermore, the risk of break through infection (even if very likely to be asymptomatic or very mild) & transmission w/ the Sinovac vaccine is higher, so certain precautions should still be taken when interaction w/ unvaccinated people (such as masking).

    Here is hoping Malaysia gets to 80% coverage of all eligible adults ASAP, then you can really start to relax. Apparently, 6 mo. after your 2nd dose, a 3rd dose of the Sinovac vaccine can increase the antibody by ~ 10X, likely to be the case if the 3rd dose is another vaccine.

  27. 27.

    YY_Sima Qian

    @Searcher: A number of research teams have done simulations using different methods to estimate the origin date of Patient zero, IIRC, and the date tend to fall into Sept. – Oct. time frame. However, I believe this is the origin date for the original Wuhan strain, with its R0 taken as input, not putative precursor viruses that might have already jumped to humans.

    I remember another simulation that accounted for the fact that transmission of the original Wuhan strain is dominated by super spreading events. Accounting for this fact, more than two thirds of introductions into humans petered out on their own. A metropolis of nearly 20M people, heading into the Fall, might have been the environment necessary for a series of super spreading events to occur & kick off a pandemic. Wuhan not only houses the WIV, it is also the logistics hub for all of central China, including the wildlife trade.

    The estimated Oct. origin will also feed into Chinese CTs that foreign participants to the World Military Games (held in Wuhan in mid-Oct.)  brought the virus to the city. However, that is even more speculative than the lab leak theory.

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