February 9 coronavirus news

Athletes will be tested for Covid-19 at least every four days during their stay in Tokyo to safeguard against the spread of the virus at this summer’s Olympic and Paralympic Games, according to organizers.

On Tuesday, Games organizers published the first version of its "Playbook," aimed at athletes and officials.

The athletes and officials will be able to book Covid-19 tests through a web system.

"The timing and frequency of testing may be adjusted, depending on your sport and competition schedule," it says.

Athletes will also have to present a negative test 72 hours prior to departing for Tokyo, and will be tested again upon arrival, it says.

The Playbook adds that athletes will only be permitted to leave the Olympic and Paralympic Village (or other designated accommodation) to carry out the activities outlined in their "14-day activity plan.”

Gyms, tourist areas, shops, restaurants or bars cannot be visited, among others.

Face masks must be worn at all times except when training, competing, eating or sleeping, or if athletes are outside and unable to keep two meters (6.5 feet) apart from others.

Those staying at the Olympic Village must eat at the Village or Games venues and “unnecessary forms of physical contact such as hugs, high-fives and handshakes” are not advised.

The guidelines also say that supporting and celebrating fellow athletes should be done by clapping, and not by singing, shouting or chanting.

The series of "Playbooks" are designed to provide a framework of basic principles that each key stakeholder group – international federations, press, broadcasters, athletes and officials – will have to follow before they travel to Japan, when entering Japan, during their time at the Games and upon leaving the Games.

The first versions for all the aforementioned groups have now been published with an updated version expected to be delivered in April.

A Chinese health official working with the team of World Health Organization experts in Wuhan said that the Huanan seafood market may not be the first place of the Covid-19 outbreak.

"Huanan market may not be the first place that had the outbreak," Liang Wannian, head of Expert Panel of COVID-19 Response of China's National Health Commission (NHC) said in a joint press conference with WHO experts in Wuhan on Tuesday.

Liang noted that the onset date of the earliest Covid-19 case had been on December 8, 2019 and the earliest case associated with Huanan market was on December 12, 2019.

He said that "the case with the onset date of December 8 case had no relation with Huanan seafood market," but did not indicate a location that the December 8 case was connected to.

Earlier, World Health Organization expert Peter Ben Embarek said that the team investigating the origins of the coronavirus in Wuhan had identified two scenarios that most likely caused the transmission of Covid-19 to humans.

"Our initial findings suggest that the introduction through an intermediary host species is the most likely pathway and one way that will require more studies and more specific targeted research," Embarek said during a press conference on Tuesday.

He added that the possibility of transmission through the trade of frozen products was also likely.

Almost 50% of deaths in England and Wales during the last week of January involved Covid-19, a report by the UK’s Office for National Statistics said on Tuesday.

The ONS report said that in the week ending on January 29, “deaths involving Covid-19 accounted for 45.7% of all deaths in England and Wales."

A total of 18,448 deaths were registered across England and Wales for the week ending on January 29, and of them, 8,433 “mentioned” Covid-19 on the death certificate, marking the second-highest weekly number of deaths involving Covid-19 recorded by the two nations since the pandemic began, the ONS said.

However, since the end of January, the daily coronavirus death toll released by the UK government (covering the four-nations of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) has indicated a gradual decline in the number of deaths related to Covid-19.

The UK is likely past “this peak” of this wave of the pandemic, England’s Chief Medical Officer told a Downing Street press conference last Wednesday.

ONS figures include all deaths where “novel coronavirus (Covid-19)” is listed on the death certificate, whereas UK government figures count deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid-19 test.

According to the latest government data released on Monday, the UK reported 6,234 deaths from Covid-19 in the week to 8 February, down 22% from the previous week.

The first multicenter study to investigate the spread of Covid-19 in daycare centers suggests that preschool-age children are not superspreaders of Covid-19.

When the right public health measures are implemented, daycare centers are safe for both children and staff members, the researchers say. 

The study was published Monday in the Lancet Child and Adolescent Health journal and conducted in the French cities of Paris, Rouen and Annecy between June 4 and July 3, 2020 — up to two months after France’s national lockdown. 

The researchers collected serology data on 327 children and 197 daycare staff across 22 daycare centers and a comparison group of 164 “hospital staff who kept working during the lockdown, were not occupationally exposed to infants, and were not directly exposed to patients with COVID-19,” according to the researchers. 

The study used data from rapid antibody tests and found the prevalence of antibodies for children at daycare centers was only 3.7%, well below the national rate of 10% found in adults in the same time period. 

The 14 children that were found to have antibodies came from 13 different centers, and the two children from the same center never had contact.

At these daycare centers, face masks were worn by staff, enrollment and staffing were reduced, children who became symptomatic were excluded, staff conducted regular temperature checks and reinforced hand hygiene and everyone practiced physical distancing. 

Additionally, the researchers found that daycare staff were no more likely to contract Covid-19 than the general population.

Dr. Camille Aupiais, a pediatrician who contributed research to the study, said:

The researchers say one limitation to the study is that data was collected before the emergence of coronavirus variants that some experts suggest may be more transmissible in children. 

New research in the UK shows around 1 in 3 (35%) of Covid-19 patients put on a ventilator experience "extensive symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)" after treatment. 

The research, conducted in the UK by Imperial College London and the University of Southampton, also found that extensive symptoms of PTSD, such as "intrusive images" of the ICU environment, were also found in 18% of patients hospitalized without requiring a ventilator.

The results of the study were published Tuesday in the UK Royal College of Psychiatrists’ BJPsych Open journal.

The study was conducted in May 2020, when researchers surveyed symptoms of PTSD in over 13,000 British patients with experience of confirmed or suspected Covid-19.

The study also found:

The authors highlight the importance of following-up with Covid-19 survivors after treatment and access to mental health treatment.

Dr. Adrian James, President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said:

On Tuesday, Iran began its rollout of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, according to a live broadcast on state television.

Health Minister Saeed Namaki said the top priority groups to receive the vaccination are doctors and nurses working at intensive care units across the country's hospitals.

The health minister's son, Parsa Namaki, was the first Iranian to receive a shot. Namaki, a science and engineering student at Sharif University, was identified on Iran's English-language service Press TV while getting the vaccine.

Iran received its first delivery of the Sputnik-V vaccine from Russia on February 4, according to Iran's state-run news agency IRNA.

The health minister said in addition to the Russian Sputnik vaccine, Iran has also bought some 16.8 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines through COVAX to vaccinate 8.4 million people. 

Iran reported 7,640 new daily coronavirus cases on Tuesday, bringing the country's total number of cases to 1,481,396.

The new numbers were announced by Iran’s Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadaat Lari in a news conference on state TV.

The country also reported 89 new deaths from Covid-19 bringing the country's death toll to 58,625. The health ministry said 3,762 patients are hospitalized in ICU.

Iran is the Middle East country hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic in total cases and deaths.

World Health Organization expert Peter Ben Embarek said that the team investigating the origins of the coronavirus in Wuhan have identified two scenarios that most likely caused the transmission of Covid-19 to the human population.

"Our initial findings suggest that the introduction through an intermediary host species is the most likely pathway and one way that will require more studies and more specific targeted research," Embarek said during a press conference on Tuesday.

He added that the possibility of transmission through the trade of frozen products was also likely.

Embarek also noted two other hypotheses the team had probed while investigating the origin of the virus.

One hypothesis was a "direct zoonotic spillover," meaning, direct transmission from an animal reservoir to a human. 

"The hypothesis of a direct spillover from an original animal source into the human population is also a possible pathway and is also generating recommendation for future studies," he said.

The fourth hypothesis was the possibility of a laboratory-related incident, but that this was the least likely of the four to be the cause of the virus' introduction to humans.

"Findings suggest that the laboratory hypothesis is extremely unlikely to explain the introduction of the virus to the human population," Embarek said.

World Health Organization expert Peter Ben Embarek said the first Covid-19 cases from the Huanan seafood market outbreak were probably infected in early December 2019 or late November 2019.

"In terms of time and place, what we know is that some of the first cases that could be linked to the market were detected or had their onset of symptoms in the first two weeks of December -- that indicating that they were probably infected around the start of December or late November," Embarek said in a press conference following the WHO team's investigation in Wuhan on Tuesday.

"But we can't go into more details with the information we have looked at," Embarek added.

Embarek also said his team found evidence of wider circulation of Covid-19 outside of the Huanan seafood market outbreak in December 2019.

"It was not just only the cluster outbreak in Huanan market, but the virus was also circulated outside the market," he said.

Embarek added that the team's picture of the virus' origins prior to the investigation had not changed dramatically, but that they had gleaned more information.

"Did we change dramatically the picture we had beforehand? I don't think so. Did we add details? Absolutely," Embarek said.

Viruses genetically related to SARS-CoV-2 have not been identified in different animals including horseshoe bats and pangolins, and all animals tested in Wuhan tested negative for the virus, China's leading health official said Tuesday.

At a joint World Health Organization-China press conference in Wuhan on Tuesday, Liang Wannian, Head of Expert Panel of COVID-19 Response of China National Health Commission (NHC) said that the studies and research have "failed to identify evidence of SARS-CoV-2 related viruses in samples of wildlife in Wuhan and different places in China."

"All animals were negative," Liang said of the animals tested in Wuhan.

Liang said that sampling from the Huanan seafood market indicated that there was "widespread contamination of surfaces" with SARS-CoV-2 at the point that it closed.

He said that the finding was "compatible with the introduction of the virus from infected people or related cold chain products, animals and animal products" and that research into related cold chain products needed further research. 

"According to this research, all of the samples related to animal products or animals were all negative. For the cold chain products and relevant testing, the research is at the ongoing stage," Liang said.

He explained that the virus can "persist in conditions found in frozen food, packaging and cold chain products," and that "recent outbreaks in China have been linked to the cold chain."

Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated Liang’s findings on the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in animals.