Coronavirus Updates

The United States has lifted its requirement that international travelers present a negative COVID-19 test a day before leaving for the US. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that it would monitor the spread of the virus and could reassess the need to reinstate a testing requirement if the virus has a resurgence. The requirement has been in place since January 2021.

A new peer-reviewed study has found that children who have been infected COVID-19 are not protected against the omicron variant but those who have been vaccinated with two doses against the virus are. The study was published on Friday in the scientific journal Nature Communications. The tests of five different variants were conducted on blood samples taken from 62 children and teens hospitalized with COVID-19, 65 who were hospitalized with multisystem inflammatory syndrome and 50 who had recovered from mild COVID-19 at home. Omicron was able to evade the body’s immunological response, according to the study.

North Korea has reported an increase in possible cases of the coronavirus in the wake of reports that it had lifted restrictions on free movement in order to prevent the spread of the infection in the capital of Pyongyang. Some 100,710 fevers were reported in the 24-hour period that ended on Sunday evening, state media reported the following day, the first time that suspected cases of the coronavirus rose above 100,000 in the last three days. There have been more than 3.55 million cases reported of COVID-19 in North Korea since the end of April though the official death toll is 70. The country reported an outbreak of the omicron variant in mid-May. Most North Koreans are not vaccinated against the virus.

Pfizer announced on Monday that a third pediatric dose of its vaccine against the coronavirus in children ages 6 months to under five years old provides a strong immune response and is safe. The company cited its clinical trials, in which the pediatric dose – which is one-tenth of the dose given to adults – showed an efficacy of 80.3% in preliminary analyses. Pfizer said it would submit the new data to the US Food and Drug Administration in a bid to get the FDA’s approval for a three-shot regimen of the pediatric dose for the young age group.

Oman has lifted all restrictions put in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Oman’s COVID-19 Supreme Committee announced the lifting of the measures on Sunday. In announcing the end of the restrictions the committee called on the elderly and people with chronic diseases to continue to wear masks indoors and also to receive booster vaccine doses. The committee also recommended that Omanis continue to isolate if they have symptoms of the virus and to wear a mask if they come in contact with a positive case.

The US Food and Drug Administration has authorized the use of a booster shot of the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 5 to 11. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention still needs to agree to the authorization for the third shot of the vaccine, announced by the FDA on Tuesday. The CDC will hold a discussion about the boosters for children on Thursday, Nearly 29% of children ages 5 to 11 are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

North Korea, which until last week had not reported any known cases of the coronavirus, reported that nearly 270,000 people have come down with fevers and six of them died, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. North Korea’s total tally of people who have developed fever since late April to 1,483,060 and deaths to 56. As of Tuesday, at least 663,910 people were in quarantine, though North Korea does not have the testing supplies needed to confirm a large-scale outbreak.

The Pfizer vaccine against the coronavirus prevented 8.7 million symptomatic cases of COVID-19 and 690,000 hospitalizations, according to a new study. The vaccine also saved over $30 billion in healthcare costs and over $40 billion in lost productivity, according to the study published on Sunday in the Journal of Medical Economics, a peer-reviewed journal. The researchers used data including the number of vaccinated people, the effectiveness of the vaccine and the likelihood that the patients would develop symptoms and become hospitalized. They authors of the study used real-world and trial data to determine the number of symptomatic COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths that would have occurred without the Pfizer vaccine, and the cost on the healthcare system plus the economy.

After more than six weeks in lockdown due to the spread of COVID-19, the city of Shanghai announced plans to gradually reopen. The spread of the coronavirus was stopped in 15 of the city’s 16 districts. The city will completely reopen by June 1. Grocery stores, pharmacies, and convenience stores will open this week, and in-person teaching at some schools. Some public transportation will resume on May 22.

Some 93% of pregnant women hospitalized with COVID-19 were unvaccinated, according to a newly published non-peer-reviewed study. More than 70% of the pregnant women in the study were hospitalized in the third trimester. The study, published in Research Square, looked at 336 hospitalized pregnant women infected with the coronavirus about of a total of 905 pregnant women in the study. Participants in the study also included non-pregnant women between the ages of 15 and 49.