Russia reported 5,635 new cases of the novel coronavirus on Monday, its lowest daily rise since April 23, pushing its national tally to 818,120, the fourth largest in the world.

In a daily readout, the official coronavirus taskforce said 85 people had died over the last 24 hours, bringing the official death toll to 13,354.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-russia-cases/russia-reports-lowest-number-of-new-coronavirus-cases-since-late-april-idUSKCN24S0MY

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The world’s biggest COVID-19 vaccine study got underway Monday with the first of 30,000 planned volunteers helping to test shots created by the U.S. government — one of several candidates in the final stretch of the global vaccine race.

There’s still no guarantee that the experimental vaccine, developed by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc., will really protect.

The needed proof: Volunteers won’t know if they’re getting the real shot or a dummy version. After two doses, scientists will closely track which group experiences more infections as they go about their daily routines, especially in areas where the virus still is spreading unchecked.

​“Unfortunately for the United States of America, we have plenty of infections right now” to get that answer, NIH’s Dr. Anthony Fauci recently told The Associated Press.

Moderna said the vaccination was done in Savannah, Georgia, the first site to get underway among more than seven dozen trial sites scattered around the country.

Several other vaccines made by China and by Britain’s Oxford University earlier this month began smaller final-stage tests in Brazil and other hard-hit countries.

But the U.S. requires its own tests of any vaccine that might be used in the country and has set a high bar: Every month through fall, the government-funded COVID-19 Prevention Network will roll out a new study of a leading candidate — each one with 30,000 newly recruited volunteers.

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/major-covid-19-vaccine-trial-gets-underway-with-30000-volunteers

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Moderna Inc said on Sunday it has received an additional $472 million from the U.S. government’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to support development of its novel coronavirus vaccine.

The U.S.-based drug maker said the additional funding will support its late-stage clinical development including the expanded Phase 3 study of Moderna’s vaccine candidate.

In April, Moderna had received $483 million from the U.S. federal agency that funds disease-fighting technology, when the experimental vaccine was in an early-stage trial conducted by the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

“Encouraged by the Phase 1 data, we believe that our mRNA vaccine may aid in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic and preventing future outbreaks,” Chief Executive Officer Stéphane Bancel said in a press release.

BARDA’s total funding for the experimental vaccine of Moderna, the first in the United States to begin human trials of a coronavirus vaccine, is now about $955 million.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-moderna-funding/moderna-gets-further-472-million-us-award-for-coronavirus-vaccine-development-idUSKCN24R0IN

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The state health department reported no new COVID-19 deaths Sunday, leaving the state death toll at 6,149.

An additional 1,041 coronavirus cases have been reported by the state health department Sunday. This brings Michigan's total to 78,019 cases.

The large number of cases reported Sunday is due to a delay in processing laboratory result referrals from Friday evening through Saturday morning, according to a statement from the health department. Sunday's report includes cases that would have been included in Saturday's report but were not processed in time.

https://eu.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/07/26/coronavirus-deaths-new-cases-update/5514791002/

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Dogs have smell receptors up to 10,000 times more powerful and accurate than humans. That allows certain trained dogs to sniff out diseases like cancer, malaria and viral infections.

Now, according to German researchers, trained dogs can sniff out coronavirus infections.

A new study, which was piloted by the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, the Hannover Medical School and the German Armed Forces found that, if properly trained, dogs were able to discriminate between human saliva samples infected with SARS-CoV-2 and non-infected samples with a 94% success rate overall. 

The hope is this method of detection could be one day be used in public areas such as airports, sporting events and other mass gatherings (in addition to laboratory testing) to help prevent future Covid-19 outbreaks, according to researchers.

To conduct the study, researchers trained eight dogs from Germany’s Armed Forces for one week. The trained dogs sniffed the saliva of more than 1,000 people that were either healthy or infected with the virus. Samples infected with Covid-19 were distributed at random and neither the dog handlers nor the researchers on site knew which ones were positive.

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/24/trained-dogs-sniffed-out-covid-19-infections-with-high-accuracy-study.html

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Hospital patients and staff will soon be able to find out if they have coronavirus within just one hour under a rapid testing programme being developed by the government.

The tests, which detect the virus from a non-invasive nostril swap, could be vital for restarting NHS services, allowing patients and staff to be quickly assessed before surgery or other health care procedures.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/coronavirus-uk-news-live-gyms-boris-johnson-second-wave-update-today-a9637371.html

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GenScript, a leading life sciences company, has a new antibody test that could raise the standard for testing and give us clearer insights on how to fight the coronavirus. Today, in the prestigious scientific journal Nature, GenScript describes early results from the test, which targets specialized virus-thwarting antibodies known as neutralizing antibodies. The results suggest we can rethink our understanding of long term immunity to Covid, and offers hope for the effectiveness of a future vaccine.

When a virus infects our body, our immune system kicks into action to combat it in a number of ways. One part of that immune response involves antibodies, the tiny proteins which recognize a virus and stick to it. But not all antibodies are made equal.

“When you have a virus, you generate all these antibodies, but only a small fraction bind to the virus in a way that prevents it from infecting a cell,” GenScript’s Eric Wang explains. “Those are the neutralizing antibodies.”

Neutralizing antibodies make up less than 1% of the total antibodies measured by current commercial tests, and Wang says they’re being missed. That means we could be underestimating just how many people are already protected against reinfection with the virus. 

Neutralizing antibodies are not sufficient in all cases. But based on the body’s response to other viruses, neutralizing antibodies are a good indicator of protective immunity in most patients who have recovered from a disease.

“All the antibody tests at the moment look at total antibodies, and these can reduce significantly just a few months after a patient recovers from Covid,” says Wang. “But as long as you have a small amount of neutralizing antibody, the patient may still be immune to the virus.”

Recent studies have indicated that total antibodies, including neutralizing antibodies, do indeed reduce in both asymptomatic and symptomatic Covid survivors. A UK team suggested last week that this seemingly transient immune response, which included a reduction in neutralizing antibodies, might well be linked to the severity of the initial illness.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johncumbers/2020/07/24/a-new-test-shows-whether-your-immune-system-can-neutralize-the-coronavirus/#6e112dbc3524

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Hopes of a rapid recovery in Britain’s economy from the coronavirus lockdown have been boosted by a summer rebound in retail sales and the strongest monthly growth in business activity for five years.

The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics showed retail sales rose by 13.9% in June compared with May as pent-up demand among consumers returned overall spending close to pre-pandemic levels.

A health check on business activity from IHS Markit and the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply also showed Britain’s private sector economy returned to growth in July as clients and customers returned to spending and businesses were able to open their operations as staff returned.

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The number of daily passenger flights in China has rebounded to 80% of pre-coronavirus levels, China’s aviation regulator said on Friday, as the aviation industry recovers from the plunge in travel demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

On July 23, Chinese airlines operated 13,059 passenger flights, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) said.

Daily passenger traffic was nearly 70% of the level seen last year, with load factors, a measure of how well airlines are filling available seats, averaging 73.57%.

The global aviation industry is closely watching capacity in China as a harbinger of demand recovery trends.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-china-aviation/daily-passenger-flights-in-china-rebound-to-80-of-pre-covid-levels-idUSKCN24P0V2

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Osteoporosis drug reduces coronavirus infection in human cells by 85%, scientists say, opening the door to a new, rapid treatment for the disease.

Apilimod, a widely used drug, is one of 13 new drugs that were found to be effective in fighting the coronavirus when scientists looked at almost 12,000 treatments to see if any of them could fight Covid- 19.

Reusing drugs is a quick way to find new treatments because safety concerns have already been addressed, making them available faster.

Other drugs found to have anti-Covid-19 properties include an anti-HIV drug called R 82913 and treatment for diabetes.

A drug developed to treat autoimmune diseases like Crohn’s disease may also be effective, the scientists conclude in an article published in the journal Nature.

The drugs have been tested for their ability to prevent SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for Covid-19, from replicating in human lung tissue.

Apilimod was found to have the greatest effect of all, reducing the number of infected cells by 85 percent.

The study was carried out by researchers at the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute in California.

https://www.fr24news.com/a/2020/07/osteoporosis-drug-could-be-reused-to-fight-covid-19-scientists-say.html

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