Dear reader,
The Covid pandemic has completely changed our normal life.
In Spain, for the near future, strict measures will remain in force to control and reduce the Coronavirus. Throughout Spain, it is mandatory to wear a face mask on the street and in all public areas for anyone over 6 years old. Also is it prohibited to smoke in the streets and the maximum number of people in a group is 10.
In the event of a local outbreak of the Coronavirus, regional authorities can decide to take local lockdown measures to prevent further contamination. This could mean, for example, that (part of) an area is closed to incoming and outgoing traffic.
The number of positive cases and hospital admissions have increased rapidly in recent weeks. Although in the first weeks most cases were young people, the number of elderly people is now increasing and with it the number of admissions. Much more testing is currently underway than at the first peak. Therefore the diagnosis is confirmed more quickly and contacts can be identified more quickly, quarantine is more effective and the necessary treatment can start sooner to prevent admission.
Regarding the vaccine, an open letter from nine major US and European pharmaceutical companies came in the news last week saying - which I think is strange - that they will not market their coronavirus vaccines until these prove to be safe and effective. There is a lot of concern among people that health risks might be taken in order to get a corona vaccine on the market as soon as possible. The trust of the general public is necessary because a large proportion of people will have to use the vaccine to make it effective.
AstraZeneca, in collaboration with Oxford University, is one of the front runners in the race for the vaccine. Today, AstraZeneca's “AZD1222” is one of the few vaccine candidates in the final phase of the investigation before drug agencies can review the files and, at best, approve them for sale. Last week, the study was temporarily stopped due to side effects in one patient. The company has already signed deals with the US, UK and Japanese governments and with the European Commission. 7.5 Million doses have been reserved for Belgium.
In a journal of infectious diseases (Journal of Infectious Diseases June 2020) results were shown regarding the effect of sunlight on the virus in saliva. This shows that after 6.8 minutes of sunlight the activity of the SARS-Covid2 virus on non-porous surfaces is reduced by 90%.
Kind regards,
Bernadette
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