 | | | | The Delta and Kappa coronavirus variants have surged in Italy in the past month, accounting for nearly 17% of total COVID-19 cases, the national health institute ISS said on Friday. | | | | | | Mexico's health ministry on Friday reported 5,270 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country and 278 more fatalities, bringing the total figures to 2,498,357 infections and 232,346 deaths. | | | | | | The following is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. | | | | | | The United States has administered 321,199,379 doses of COVID-19 vaccines in the country as of Friday morning and distributed 380,222,670 doses, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. | | | | | | Rich countries are opening up societies and vaccinating young people who are not at great risk from COVID-19, while the poorest countries cruelly lack doses, the World Health Organization said on Friday, condemning a global failure. | | | | | | Germany declared Portugal and Russia to be "virus-variant zones", a measure that will trigger severe restrictions on travel to and from both countries. | | | | | | A single dose of Russia's Sputnik V or the Oxford University-AstraZeneca (AZN.L) vaccine reduces mortality from COVID-19 by between 70% and 80% in people aged 60-plus, real-world data from Argentina's national inoculation program show. | | | | | | At a Rastafari farming community high up in the hills above Jamaica's capital, dreadlocked locals gather at the temple to worship and celebrate with Bible readings and traditional drumming and chanting. No COVID-19 protocols are in place. | | | | | | U.S. health officials on Friday paused the distribution of Eli Lilly's (LLY.N) COVID-19 antibody cocktail therapy as it failed to show effectiveness against the coronavirus variants that were first identified in Brazil and South Africa. | | | | | | Canada projects COVID-19 infections will decline rapidly over the next two months, but the more contagious Delta variant risks causing a greater-than-expected resurgence of cases later this year, public health officials said on Friday. | | | | | |
