Michael Le Page, Jessica Hamzelou, Sam Wong, Graham Lawton, Adam Vaughan, Conrad Quilty-Harper, LayalLiverpool, Matt Hambly, Carissa Wong, Alex.
A lab technician is in the emergency department at Providence St. Mary Medical Center in Apple Valley, California.
Mario Tama is a photographer.
People with the milder omicron variant need the same levels of respiratory support and intensive care as those with the more severe version of the disease.
More than 2000 people who tested positive for covid-19 were studied by Heba Mostafa and her colleagues. The team recorded the participants' clinical outcomes.
73 percent of the participants who were hospitalized needed extra oxygen, while 25 percent needed intensive care.
Extra oxygen and intensive care were required by 17 per cent of those who were hospitalized with omicron.
The participants who were exposed to omicron were less likely to be hospitalized in the first place. Only 3 per cent of the participants were admitted to the hospital with omicron, compared to 13 per cent of those with delta.
Patients with omicron were less likely to be admitted to the hospital.
It is not a mild infection for many people.
There are other coronaviruses news.
Today, Singapore removed most of its remaining restrictions. Limits on the number of people who can work in an office at any one time, as well as limits on the size of groups, are among the curbs that have been dropped.
Nearly two-thirds of people who were restricted from visiting relatives while they were in the hospital may have developed a stress-related disorder.
Three months after a family member was admitted to intensive care with covid-19, researchers at the University of Colorado Denver surveyed 330 relatives.
Almost two-fifths of the relatives scored high on the tests that measure symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. When a loved one was admitted to intensive care for non-covid-19 reasons, this was more than double pre-pandemic levels.
According to Timothy Amass, the findings suggest that the restrictions may have contributed to an epidemic of stress-related disorders for family members of patients in the intensive care unit.
Where did coronaviruses come from? Other questions were answered.
What is it called?
Everything you need to know about Covid-19 vaccines.
How long will it last and can we treat it?
What is the best way to share covid-19 vaccines around the world?
The story of a disease.
The latest developments in the covid-19 pandemic are covered in New Scientist Weekly. The biggest science stories to hit the headlines each week include technology and space, health and the environment.
The Jump is a series on the radio about how viruses can cross from animals to humans. The first episode looks at the origins of the disease.
The high covid-19 death rates in ethnic minority patients reveal about health inequality in the UK.
The inside story of the development of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine against covid-19 is the subject of a documentary.
Race Against the Virus: Hunt for a Vaccine is a Channel 4 documentary which tells the story of the coronaviruses epidemic through the eyes of the scientists on the frontline.
The New York Times is ranking potential drug treatments for covid-19 based on their effectiveness and safety.
Humans of COVID-19 is a project that highlights the experiences of key workers in the fight against coronaviruses in the UK through social media.
The death of a transport worker at London's Victoria Station is the subject of a programme called Belly Mujinga: Searching for the Truth.
There is a short documentary series on the coronaviruses that looks at the efforts to fight it and ways to manage its mental health toll.
Stopping the Next Pandemic: How Covid-19 Can Help Us Save humanity is a book written by Debora Mackenzie about how the epidemic happened and why it will happen again if we don't do things differently in the future.
The Rules of Contagion is a book about the new science of contagion and how it shapes our lives and behavior. In his book, Adam Kucharski examines how diseases spread and why they stop.
People are at the Royal London Hospital.
Photo by Mark Thomas.
Only 29 percent of people who were hospitalized with covid-19 in the UK feel recovered one year later.
In the UK, 2320 people were discharged from hospital after being admitted with covid-19 between March 2020 and April 2021. A third of the participants were also assessed one year after discharge.
The majority of the participants still had fatigue, muscle pain, poor sleep and breathlessness five months later.
Evans said in a statement that the limited recovery from five months to one year after hospitalisation is striking.
Female participants were less likely to feel fully recovered one year after severe covid-19, which is more common among males. The participants who were obese and had mechanical ventilation were less likely to feel recovered.
Over the past two years, more than 750,000 people have been hospitalized in the UK with covid-19, and it is clear from our research that the legacy of this disease is going to be huge.
There are other coronaviruses news.
Even when immunisation rates are high, unvaccinated people could raise the covid-19 risk. David Fisman and his colleagues at the University of Toronto created a simulation of how different levels of population mixing affect the spread of a disease.
New infections were high when the simulation groups of vaccine and unvaccinated people were mixed.
More than 19,000 new cases and a record 51 deaths were reported in the city of Shanghai in China. Authorities are trying to maintain their zero covid policy as the population remains locked down.
According to the national health ministry, there were nearly 22,000 new reported cases in China on April 24. 26 new cases have been identified and mass testing is being rolled out in Beijing.
The nurses are waiting to give the covid-19 vaccine in Fontana, California.
The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin is owned by the Media News Group.
There were 5 million new covid-19 cases in the week ending April 17th, a decrease of 24 per cent from the previous week.
According to a report by the World Health Organization, the number of official covid-19 cases is continuing to decline.
In the Western Pacific, reported cases declined by 28 per cent week-on-week.
The Eastern Mediterranean is followed by 26 per cent, Europe 25 per cent, South East Asia 16 per cent, Africa 7 per cent, and the Americas 2 per cent.
The decline in reported deaths was 12 per cent week-on-week.
The figures should be interpreted with caution according to the WHO. Changes in how countries test for the disease may lead to a lower number of cases being detected.
England has abolished free universal testing, while rules around free tests are tighter in Wales and Scotland. There are Covid-19 tests in Northern Ireland.
There are other coronaviruses news.
Exposure to air pollution can increase your risk of catching a disease. Zhebin Yu and his colleagues looked at a group of people who tested positive between May 2020 and March 2021.
Black carbon and airborne particulate matter were higher in the days leading up to the positive test, compared with later control days.
A single dose of Evusheld could reduce the risk of covid-19 by 83 per cent over six months, compared with a placebo.
More than 5000 adults were included in the study, all of whom were less likely to respond to a covid-19 vaccine.
There were no severe covid-19 cases or covid-19-related deaths in the Evusheld group. The placebo group had five cases of severe or critical disease, seven hospitalisations and two covid-19-related deaths by the six-month follow-up.
People clean up a residential area under lock down in China.
Aly Song is pictured.
Seven covid-19 deaths have been reported in China's biggest city.
The largest covid-19 outbreak in China since the outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 virus at the end of last year is centred in Shanghai.
China's health officials say that only seven people have died with the disease, despite the high number of cases.
The largest city in China has been locked down since April 6. The initial plan was for the eastern districts of the city to be restricted for five days, followed by an additional five days in the western districts. Lockdown was extended to cover the entire population.
The number of cases appears to be falling, prompting officials to say they are ready to ease the lock down.
On 18 April, 19,831 new infections were reported, down from 21,592 on 16 April. The new infections were down from the previous day.
There are other coronaviruses news.
According to research published by Brown University and LENA, babies born during the covid-19 outbreak may be slower to speak.
The data taken from LENA's Talk Pedometer shows a large drop in the verbal function of the infant.
The results reinforce the idea that the Pandemic has had a negative impact on children's brain development.
The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has removed all remaining countries from its highest coronaviruses travel risk category. People were previously urged by the CDC to avoid all non-essential travel to these destinations.
The CDC said Level 4 would be reserved for countries with special circumstances, including rapidly escalating case numbers or the emergence of a new variant of concern. The UK, France and Germany are all at the CDC's Level 3 Covid-19 warning.
A Biologist at Valneva is working on a vaccine.
There are two people in this picture: LISI NIESNER/REUTERS and Alamy.
The UK has approved a sixth covid-19 vaccine, which can be stored in a fridge.
The sixth covid-19 vaccine to be approved by the UK's Medicines and healthcare products Regulatory Agency is a vaccine that contains a whole inactivated form of the virus.
The vaccine for emergency use was approved in March by the government of Bahrain. The jab can be stored for up to a year in a standard fridge, and the UK is the first to sign off on it.
For a maximum of six months, the vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech have to be stored. The Moderna jab can be kept in a standard fridge for 30 days, while the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine can only be kept for five days.
The results of a study done in October last year have led to the MHRA approval. The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine can be stored at higher temperatures than the Valneva jab, which can be administered 28 days apart.
The study only compared the two vaccines against each other.
The rate of covid-19 infections was similar between the two groups.
The Commission on Human Medicines and its COVID-19 Expert Working Group are pleased to say that the benefit risk balance is positive.
The vaccine is approved for use in people between the ages of 18 and 50 years, with the first and second doses to be taken at least 28 days apart.
Pfizer's chief executive said the firm could develop a vaccine that protects against all known variants by the end of the year.
There are other coronaviruses news.
People with an increased risk of heart disease are six times more likely to die.
The study found that people with a high chance of having a stroke or heart attack in the next 10 years are three times more likely to be admitted to intensive care.
This is compared with people with a less than 10 per cent risk of developing heart disease, which is calculated by factors like their body mass index, smoking status and blood pressure.
The covid-19 public health emergency status in the US has been renewed every quarter since January 2020. It was due to end on April 16.
People in the US can get free covid-19 tests, vaccines and treatments for at least another three months.
People are at a covid-19 testing site.
Daniel Knighton is a photographer.
More than 500 million covid-19 cases have been recorded around the world since the outbreak emerged.
More than 500,000,000 covid-19 cases have been reported worldwide according to the case tracker. The World Health Organisation's ( WHO) tracker is close to reporting half a million cases as of 12 April.
A lack of testing infrastructure worldwide means the global case number is probably much higher than is being reported, particularly in poorer countries. Africa's true case number is 100 times higher than what is being reported, according to a WHO analysis.
As countries scale back their test capacity, the number of unaccounted cases is expected to increase.
The number of new cases has fallen in recent weeks, with the daily case rate 41 per cent lower than it was two weeks ago, according to the University. Reduced testing and an under reporting of cases may have contributed to the apparent fall in cases.
The more transmissible omicron variant and its sublineages spread across the world, as Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the WHO warned.
There are other coronaviruses news.
An analysis of Israel's vaccine booster campaign has shown that the timing of booster roll- outs is crucial to preventing a surge in cases.
Youngsters who are less likely to become seriously ill with covid-19 is a key to preventing transmission.
The analysis concluded that if Israel hadn't started its booster campaign, officials would have to apply extensive non-pharmaceutical interventions to prevent a destructive wave.
The number of reported cases in England fell from 51,253 on April 6 to 37,819 on April 12. Since England scrapped free universal testing on 1 April, these figures are expected to be less useful.
There have been 74 cases of hepatitis in children in the UK so far this year, and doctors are trying to figure out what is causing it.
A range of pathogens can cause the disease. The rise in cases may be due to a delayed reaction to covid-19. After the lifting of restrictions, exposure to a circulating virus could be behind the surge.
A health worker is giving a vaccine.
Anadolu Agency.
The covid-19 vaccine may not cause more heart inflammation than any other jab.
In rare cases, the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna covid-19 vaccines have been linked to heart inflammation. The UK's delayed decision to roll-out covid-19 vaccines to 5-to-11 year olds was due to the higher risk among younger people.
An analysis of 22 studies with hundreds of millions of vaccine doses administered between them shows heart inflammation is no more common after a covid-19 jab than it is after vaccines that protect against some other infections.
18 cases of heart inflammation occur per 1 million covid-19 vaccine doses, compared with 56 cases per 1 million non-covid vaccinations were found in the study. The rate of heart inflammation was found to be significantly higher after a smallpox jab than after a covid-19 vaccine.
Men and people under 30 were found to be more likely to develop heart inflammation. The risk was higher for those who had an mRNA vaccine, as opposed to a jab based on different technology, and after a second dose of any covid-19 jab.
Our research shows that the risk of myopericarditis is the same for the newly approved group of vaccines against COVID- 19 as it is for other diseases.
The risk of rare events should be balanced against the risk of myopericarditis, which should bolster public confidence in the safety of COVID-19 vaccinations.
There are other coronaviruses news.
The World Health Organisation is looking at two new sublineages of the omicron variant to see if they are better able to evade immunity.
Only a few dozen cases of the sublineages have been reported globally, however the WHO is tracking them due to their additional mutations that need to be further studied to understand their impact on immune escape potential.
The UK's Health Security Agency said last week that BA.4 has been identified in several countries. BA.5 was only found in South Africa, however, the health ministry in Botswana reported cases of both BA.4 and BA.5 yesterday.
One in 13 people in England, Wales and Scotland are thought to have covid-19, but people in the UK are more worried about their finances.
A team from University College London conducted a survey of over 30,000 people. A third of participants said they are concerned about catching covid-19, down from 40% in January.
38 per cent of people said they are worried about their finances because of the cost of living crisis, up from 32 per cent in January.
The number of people reporting anxiety or depression symptoms is at its highest level in 11 months, and 49 per cent of people feel in control of their mental health, down from 54 per cent six months ago.
Daisy Fancourt told Sky News that the findings could suggest that our return to more normal living has not had all the mental health benefits people expected.
There is a vaccine centre in Manchester.
Daniel Harvey Gonzalez is in pictures.
At the beginning of April, an estimated 13 people in England, Wales and Scotland were affected by the disease.
One in 16 people in Northern Ireland and one in 13 people in the rest of the UK are thought to have covid-19 infections over the first weekend of April, according to an Office for National Statistics survey.
The previous week's record high of 25,000 cases was less than the number of people being infectious across the UK.
While infections remain high, there are early signs that they may no longer be increasing in some parts of the UK.
We have seen a decrease in Scotland, but there is a mixed picture across English regions. The trend in Northern Ireland is uncertain, as rates in Wales continue to rise.
It's too early to say if infections have peaked in England and Scotland.
The end of free universal testing in England does not affect the ONS survey, which samples thousands of random people for the disease.
There are other coronaviruses news.
Anthony Fauci, the country's chief medical adviser, said that the rise in covid-19 cases in the US is not surprising. 35,243 new cases were recorded in the US on April 9.
The more transmissible omicron BA.2 sublineage is thought to be driving the rise in infections.
From today, some regions in the city will be allowed to open their doors. The city has reported a record number of new cases in the past 24 hours.
China's largest city was placed in a two-stage 10-day lock-down, affecting its eastern districts for five days, followed by an additional five days of restrictions in its western districts. This was extended to cover all of the 25-million-strong population.
Some restrictions will be lifted in areas that have had no positive cases for two weeks.
A person is lying on a sofa.
The images are from Meeko Media.
People who have had a booster vaccine have shorter symptom durations.
More than 63,000 people were analysed by King's College London and their results were analysed for the disease. The participants, who had all received at least two doses of any covid-19 vaccine, self- reported their positive test result and symptoms via the ZOE COVID app.
The covid-19 symptoms lasted on average 7.7 days among the participants who were triple jabbed, when delta was the dominant variant in the UK. When omicron was dominant, the symptom duration was defined as the end of December 2021.
Omicron has been known to be less dangerous than past covid-19 variant. Mild symptoms may be different from the more severe ones.
Less than one in five participants who caught covid-19 when omicron was dominant reported a loss of smell, compared with more than half of those who probably had delta.
Those who caught omicron were more likely to have a sore throat and hoarse voice than those who caught delta.
It is a lesson that we need to be more flexible in thinking about what the virus is and how it will affect us in the UK.
There are other coronaviruses news.
More than two-thirds of people living in Africa have been affected by the disease, 97 times more than the officially reported cases, according to a World Health Organization study.
The proportion of people in Africa with covid-19 antibodies was analysed by WHO researchers. They estimate that 800 million people were affected by the disease by September 2021, but only 8.2 million cases have been reported.
There were a record 21,000 covid-19 cases today. All of the city's 25-million-strong population has been covered by the city's lockdown. The officials haven't said when the lockdown may end.
There is a coloured 3DCT Scan of a Pulmonary Embolism.
There is a science library.
Within a month, the risk of a potentially life-threatening lung clot increases 33 times.
More than 1 million people in Sweden were tracked by the University in Sweden, who tested positive for the disease. They compared the health outcomes of this group with 4 million people who had not had a positive covid-19 test.
If a person has covid-19 symptoms for 30 days or more, the risk of deep vein thrombosis increases five-fold. DVT is a blood clot in a vein in the leg that can travel to the lungs. Blood flow to the lungs can be blocked by this.
A positive covid-19 test was found to raise the risk of the condition 33 times, persisting at this level for six months, compared with the participants who never tested positive for the disease.
Participants with mild covid-19 symptoms were three times more at risk of DVT and seven times more at risk of a pulmonary embolism than participants with severe covid-19 symptoms.
Being exposed to the first wave of the Pandemic in early 2020 was linked to a raised risk of blood clot. According to the researchers, the roll-out of vaccines and improved covid-19 treatments may have protected against clots.
Frederick Ho at the University of Glasgow told The Guardian that most governments are removing restrictions and shifting their focus to determining how best to live with covid.
There are other coronaviruses news.
According to the ONS survey, an estimated 1.7 million people in the UK have been in a relationship for at least one year. The survey participants self- reported any long covid symptoms, defined as those that persist for more than four weeks after a suspected SARS-CoV-2 virus infection, and cannot be explained by something else.
More than one million people said their long covid symptoms affected their day-to-day activities, with 322,000 saying their ability to perform daily activities has been limited.
The highest covid-19 mortality rate in England is for males in the Bangladeshi ethnic group. White British males are less likely to die from covid-19. People in the Pakistani ethnic group are 2.5 times more likely to die from covid-19 than their white British counterparts. There may be differences in mortality rates between different ethnic groups.
People exit a train.
A picture of Tolga AKMEN.
There are fewer cases among younger age groups.
According to Imperial College London's research, one in 16 people in England have covid-19.
According to the Office for National Statistics, one in 16 people in England had covid-19 on the week ending 19 March, rising to one in 13 days.
More than double the number of people who tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus in England between 8 and 31 March were found to be positive.
The BA.2 sublineage made up an estimated 94.7% of the March cases, up from just 0.8 per cent in January. There were five incidences of the recombinant XE among the infections. According to the World Health Organization, early tests show that XE is 10 percent more transmissible than BA.2.
Incidences of infections have risen in all age groups, but they seem to be declining in people between the ages of 5 to 17 and between the ages of 18 to 54.
This is not the case for people 55 and over. An estimated 8.31 per cent of people in this age group would have tested positive by the end of March, which is 20 times the average prevalence since the programme began.
The director of the REACT programme said in a statement that the trends are concerning since when a high number of people are infectious, this may lead to more people needing to go to hospital.
There are other coronaviruses news.
All of the city's 25-million-strong population has been covered by the lockdown. China's largest city was placed in a two-stage 10-day lock-down, affecting its eastern districts for five days, followed by an additional five days of restrictions in its western districts.
After testing 25 million people in 24 hours, the city reported 13,086 new cases. The number of infections in this country is relatively low compared to other nations, however, China is imposing strict restrictions as it pursues a zero coviden policy.
A study of more than 1 million people in Israel found that a second booster dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine provided some protection against severe illness in people over the age of 60. After four weeks, the protection against the virus waned.
A staff member at a testing centre takes a test on January 4.
OLI SCARFF/ Agence France-Presse.
The symptom list was expanded after free universal testing ended in England.
The three covid-19 symptoms that the health service in England has only seen for most of the Pandemic are a new cough, a loss of taste or smell, and a high temperature.
In the week ending 26 March, an estimated 4.9 million people in the UK were thought to have been exposed to the disease.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recognised many of these symptoms early in the Pandemic.
The World Health Organization considers skin rash, red or irritated eyes, and the appearance of fingers or toes to be less common signs of infections. In severe cases, there can be a loss of speech or mobility.
The main symptoms of coronaviruses have changed after 2 years of lobbying and user input, according to the lead scientist of theZoe covid-19 symptom tracker app.
The UK's narrow symptom list may be contributing to its infection surge.
Many people are no longer isolating when they have symptoms, either because they feel they don't have to anymore or because they or their employers still don't know what a sore throat is.
There are other coronaviruses news.
In England, the Covid-19 vaccines are being rolled out. In February, the UK's Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation said two low-dose vaccines would prevent a small number of children from serious illness. The rest of the UK already has vaccine programmes for this age group.
The recorded covid-19 cases are increasing. Despite initial signs that infections may be declining, the locked-down city in China recently extended its restrictions. On April 3, there were 8581 new covid-19 cases and 425 symptomatic cases, compared with 7788 new cases the day before.
Our claustrophobia and sense of being out of control may have been reflected in bizarre dreams. More than 850 dreams were analysed by University College London researchers. The UK's first lockdown took place from 23 March to 15 June 2020 and just over seven in 10 participants reported having more vivid dreams than before. Being locked indoors or unable to get to a loved one outside were included.
An aerial view of the Pudong district of Shanghai, China, on 31 March.
Xiang Xinrong/VCG is pictured.
The eastern districts of the city were due to come out of a five-day lockdown today.
On March 28, China's largest city introduced a two-stage, 10-day lockdown in order to control its omicron outbreak. An additional five days of restrictions were planned for the city's western districts.
China's health officials announced on 31 March that they will lift restrictions on the east side in stages. The city of 26 million people is going to be in a state of lock down with the five-day restrictions starting today.
People are told not to leave their homes to dispose of trash or walk their dogs. Most of the city's public transport has been suspended.
The reported case numbers are falling despite the extension. On 31 March, the city reported 4144 new cases and 358 new cases, compared with 5298 cases and 355 cases the day before.
There are other coronaviruses news.
According to the Office for National Statistics, nearly all secondary school students in England have an immunity to the disease. In the first two months of the year, more than 7000 students from 150 schools were tested for antibodies. In England, an estimated 98.6 per cent of secondary school students and 62.4 per cent of primary school pupils had the disease at the beginning of the year. Most primary pupils will be included in the low-dose Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine that will be rolled out in England this month. The pre-existing immunity among younger children came about from a natural infection.
According to an analysis of about 14 million hospital patients in the US, pregnant people are almost twice as likely to get covid-19 as people who are not pregnant. Being an organ transplant recipient or having an immune system deficiency are other risk factors for breakthrough covid-19 infections. It is possible that certain parts of the immune system are suppressed during pregnancy.
Two studies published in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases show that Covid-19 vaccines provide more protection against the coronaviruses. A Brazilian study linked the CoronaVac, Oxford/Astrazeneca, Janssen and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines to increased protection against a moderate-to-severe reinfection, while a Swedish study found covid-19 vaccine provides at least nine months of additional protection for people. The studies didn't look at the level of protection for people who fought off covid-19.
There are previous updates from March to February, January to November, September to October, July to September, and June to July.
There are more on these topics.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
