The Overseas Situation Report Friday 14 January 2022

by Mike Evans

“It ain’t over ’til it’s over”

– Yogi Berra

As the Covid Pandemic enters its third year, this report is looking at the issue surrounding the phrase long Covid and its effects on people many months later. We also look at the latest information from around the world on the Omicron variant and how it is now the major variant around the world.

For some people when the first signs of Covid 19 appeared, they, along with a lot of others who were sceptical of the news media, did not believe that the virus was any worse than the common flu virus and the consequences of catching it were not really worth worrying about.

This all changed when the number of people being admitted to hospitals across the world started to increase massively, and then when the death tolls started to mount, people finally started to realise that this virus was not like a common flu virus. Whilst many people got over it quickly some didn’t and the term Long Covid started to hit the headlines.

According to new research into this issue, Long COVID “brain fog” shares features with “chemo brain”. The “brain fog” reported by some people after COVID-19 shows striking similarities to the condition known as “chemo brain” – the mental cloudiness some people experience during and after cancer treatment, according to new research.

People who had COVID-19 “frequently experience lingering neurological symptoms, including impairment in attention, concentration, speed of information processing and memory,” similar to patients with cancer therapy-related cognitive impairment that is known to involve inflammation of the brain.

Among 63 patients with so-called long COVID, the researchers found high CCL11 levels in the 48 with lingering cognitive symptoms, but not in the 15 without cognitive issues. They speculate that treatments showing promise for cancer therapy-related cognitive impairment might be helpful for COVID-19 patients with similar problems. But they would need to be tested specifically for long COVID. The World Health Organisation defines long Covid as ongoing symptoms “three months from the onset of Covid-19”. In December, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimated that more than 1.3 million people in the UK had symptoms for four weeks or more after Covid-19, of whom 892,000 people (70%) had symptoms that persisted for at least 12 weeks, and 506,000 (40%) for at least one year. Dr Melissa Heightman, who leads the University College London hospital specialist long Covid clinic says that breathlessness, fatigue, cough, myalgia, chest pain, headache, “brain fog” and palpitations are most commonly reported. But many other symptoms may be present.

The situation in the UK has gotten so bad that 90 dedicated long Covid clinics have been established, but research and data are needed to inform patient services in real time. The aim of these clinics is to get more understanding of long Covid and to address and transform existing integrated care pathways. Another study, which involves a trial to evaluate a community-based, comprehensive MRI scan to rule out multi-organ impairment caused by Covid-19 and digitally enhanced rehabilitation, including tailored information and recovery plans, and connection to relevant specialists through an app, which will inform future care. A further trial will repurpose existing drugs, including antihistamines (loratadine and famotidine), anticoagulants (rivaroxaban) and anti-inflammatories (colchicine) to measure effects of three months’ treatment on long Covid symptoms, mental health, return to work and other important outcomes.

It is early days to see what results these specific trials will produce but we hope that by research we can get a better understanding of the long-term effects of this virus. We will return to this subject in the future once more data is available.

Meanwhile, here is a roundup of world news regarding the pandemic. The World Health Organisation warned on Tuesday that repeating booster shots of original COVID-19 vaccines was not a viable strategy for new variants.

The health body pushed for new shots that provide better protection from transmission. “A vaccination strategy based on repeated booster doses of the original vaccine composition is unlikely to be appropriate or sustainable,” a WHO vaccine advisory group said.

Meanwhile, Pfizer said this week that its vaccine jointly produced with German firm BioNTech can be given along with its pneumonia vaccine. The company tested its pneumonia shot along with a third dose of COVID vaccine in a trial of 570 participants.

Hong Kong will soon feel the negative effects of stricter quarantine curbs on air crew, with cargo traffic and implicitly — the supply of goods into the city — set to plummet, Chief Executive Carrie Lam told legislators on Wednesday.

Lam said Hong Kong already had the toughest restrictions against imported infections and it was difficult to tighten them further.

The Chinese city of Tianjin has started a new round of mass testing on all its 14 million residents after 97 cases of the omicron variant were discovered in initial screenings that began Sunday. On Wednesday, residents were ordered to remain where they were until all test results were received, the Xinhua News Agency said.

Indonesia has opened its coronavirus booster campaign to the public as the country records rising infections driven by the omicron variant. The free shots will be given to the elderly and at-risk residents as a priority but will be available to everyone who received their second dose six months previously.

South Korea on Wednesday greenlit the use of the Novavax COVID-19 jab and was gearing up to distribute the first of Pfizer’s antiviral oral drug, as the country turns to additional pharmaceutical tools amid the omicron threat. At least 21,000 of Pfizer’s pills, called Paxlovid, will reach South Korea on Thursday, with an additional 10,000 more expected to arrive by the end of January, the health ministry said.

The pills will be used in treatments for more than 1,000 people per day from Friday, the ministry added. Unvaccinated people will not be allowed to use public transport in the Philippine capital of Manila, the transport department said on Wednesday. Individuals with medical conditions that prevent their full inoculation will be exempt after producing a medical certificate. Meanwhile, unvaccinated people who need to buy essential goods or access essential services may be allowed to ride public transport if they have a health pass from their community officials or other proof to justify travel, the department added.

In Japan, Tokyo and Osaka are expected to witness a spike in the coronavirus caseload to 4-month highs. Tokyo’s infections are likely to soar to 2,000 on Wednesday as the omicron variant gains foothold across the nation, the Fuji News Network reported. In the western prefecture of Osaka there could be 1,700 new cases on Wednesday, Governor Hirofumi Yoshimura told the media, nearly three times higher from the day before.

Kyrgyzstan’s Health Ministry on Wednesday confirmed the Central Asian nation’s first cases of the omicron variant.

The United States is nearing the “threshold” of living with the coronavirus, despite the spiking caseload and record-high hospitalizations, Chief Medical Advisor to the President Anthony Fauci has said. “There’s no way we’re going to eradicate this” virus, he said in an address to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies on Tuesday. But “as omicron goes up and down,” the country will hopefully enter a new phase “where there’ll be enough protection in (the) community, enough drugs available so that when someone does get infected and is in a high-risk group, it will be very easy to treat that person,” Fauci added.

“When we get there, there’s that transition, and we may be on the threshold of that right now,” he said. Fauci also underpinned that with the country reporting almost a million COVID-19 infections a day, over 1,200 daily deaths and some 150,000 people in hospital, “we’re not at that point.”

Mexico reached a record number of daily COVID-19 infections on Tuesday, with 33,626 new confirmed cases.

In Colombia, the waiting time for booster shots has been reduced to four months. “Everyone aged 18 and over who has had both doses, or one dose in cases like Janssen, can now have their booster doses after four months instead of six,” President Ivan Duque said in a video message on Tuesday. He also added that people who have contracted the virus can get their jab 30 days after their isolation ends instead of six months after.

In Bulgaria, new cases were at a record high of 7,062 on Wednesday, spurred by omicron. The Balkan nation, which is the European Union’s least inoculated member state, saw the previous peak in October amid the delta outbreak.  About 3,000 anti-vaccine demonstrators attempted to storm the Bulgarian parliament on Wednesday and clashed with police officers. This came as protesters against the country’s health pass rallied in downtown Sofia.

Daily coronavirus cases in Austria reached a record of 18,427 on Wednesday, newspaper Kronen Zeitung said. The rise comes amid a spread of the highly virulent omicron variant.

Germany’s top civil and criminal court, the Federal Court of Justice, has ruled that commercial property tenants can be entitled to lower rents if they have been affected by a coronavirus lockdown. The court said the reduction would not be at a single level for every business — with all the circumstances of individual cases to be taken into account.

The Institute Pasteur private foundation in France said Wednesday it predicts omicron cases will peak in mid-January, with a peak in hospitalizations later this month. France recorded a daily high of nearly 370,000 new cases on Tuesday, with President Emmanuel Macron vowing to limit public activities for the unvaccinated.

The government in Tunisia announced Wednesday it would enact new restrictions to curb the spread of the virus. These new measures include a ban on gatherings and a nightly curfew from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. The curfew begins on Thursday and will remain in place for at least two weeks. Critics say the measures are intended to silence dissent towards President Kais Saied’s government. The opposition Ennahda Movement said Wednesday it would hold a demonstration on Friday against Saied, defying the rules.

Until the next time Stay Safe.

Total Cases Worldwide – 318,056,163

Total Deaths Worldwide 5,533,524

Total Recovered Worldwide – 263,183,261

Total Active Cases Worldwide 49,339,378 (15.5% of the total cases) 

Total Closed Cases Worldwide – 268,716,785

Information and Resources:

https://www.worldometer.info/coronavirus/

https://beta.dw.com/en/coronavirus-digest-germany-daily-cases-hit-record-levels/a-60394417

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/12/long-covid-trial-britain-short-term-virus

 

 

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