Coronavirus update news: Russia exceeds 2m cases; Danish mink Covid mutation 'most likely extinct'

in news •  4 years ago  (edited)

The year 2020 has been transformative for how society sees fatherhood, and could produce the most profound shift in caring responsibilities since the second world war, according to researchers, business leaders and campaigners.

Research has shown that while women bore the brunt of extra childcare during the initial coronavirus lockdown and are being disproportionately impacted by the economic fallout, there has been also a huge surge in the number of hours men are spending with their children.

This could lead to a permanent re-evaluation of the value of fatherhood and shift in working patterns, according to Ann Francke, the chief executive of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI).

“Business leaders have seen firsthand what juggling work and family life entails and that both parents need to be empowered to do that,” she said. The shift to home working had forced business leaders to recognise that flexible working could benefit all employees as well as save money, she said.

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Pandemic could lead to most profound shift in parenting roles since WWII, say experts
Denmark: mink mutation 'most likely extinct'
Reuters has more on the progress on eradicating the mink mutation in Denmark after a cull of the animals.

A new, mutated strain of the novel coronavirus stemming from mink farms in Denmark is “most likely” extinct, the health ministry said, amid fears the new strain could compromise Covid-19 vaccines.

“No further cases of mink variant with cluster 5 have been detected since 15 September which is why the State Serum Institute assesses that this variant has most likely become extinct,” the ministry said in a statement.

Two weeks ago, Denmark ordered all farmed mink in the country culled to curb widespread outbreaks of Covid-19 on farms, a situation exacerbated by the discovery of a mutated variant, which authorities said showed reduced sensitivity to antibodies.

AFP adds:

The government said most of the strict restrictions it had imposed on 5 November on seven municipalities in the North Jutland region, home to 280,000 people, would be lifted on Friday.

They had originally been due to stay in place until 3 December.

All minks in the seven municipalities have been culled, totalling 10.2 million, and the slaughter is still ongoing in other parts of the country.

With three times more minks than people, the Scandinavian country is the world’s biggest exporter, selling pelts for around €670 million annually, and the second-biggest producer behind China.following Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election. A majority of American voters have rejected four years of divisiveness, racism and sustained assaults on constitutional democracy. They have chosen a new path. But America’s systemic challenges remain.

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Reuters says the issue opens up a new front in the fraught relations between Brussels and Budapest:

A new showdown is expected when EU leaders hold a video conference today that may address the bloc’s Covid rescue plan and seven-year budget, which Hungary and Poland’s nationalist governments are blocking because they make access to money conditional on respecting the rule of law.

Hungarian plans to conduct trials of and possibly produce the Russian vaccine, an unprecedented step for an EU member state, add to existing frictions with Brussels.

Asked about these plans, a spokesman for the Commission, the EU’s executive, said:

The question arises whether a member state would want to administer to its citizens a vaccine that has not been reviewed by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

This is where the authorisation process and vaccine confidence meet. If our citizens start questioning the safety of a vaccine, should it not have gone through rigorous scientific assessment to prove its safety and efficacy, it will be much harder to vaccinate a sufficient proportion of the population,”

Under EU rules, Sputnik V must be authorised by the EMA before it can be marketed in any state of the 27-nation bloc.

Orban’s government has said it plans to trial and licence Sputnik V, and this week would begin importing a small number of doses that could lead to larger imports and mass-production in Hungary next year if the shot proved safe and effective.

Russia’s sovereign wealth fund said last week that interim trial results showed Sputnik V is 92% effective at protecting people from the Covid-19 respiratory disease, and the country is preparing for mass inoculations.

Denmark’s mink mutation of Covid has “most likely” been eradicated, AFP reports citing the Danish health ministry.
November 19, 2020
AFP did not elaborate. We will provide more details when they are available.

The apparent breakthrough comes after seven countries reported mink-related coronavirus mutations in humans.

The mutations are identified as Covid-19 mink variants as they have repeatedly been found in mink and now in humans as well.

Uncertainty around the implications of the discovery of a Covid-19 mink variant in humans led Denmark, the world’s largest mink fur producer, to launch a nationwide cull earlier this month.

The cull was sparked by research from Denmark’s public health body, the Statens Serum Institut (SSI), which showed that a mink variant called C5 was harder for antibodies to neutralise and posed a potential threat to vaccine efficacy.

(This is Matthew Weaver taking over the global Covid blogging shift).

Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, said that some health systems are being overwhelmed on the continent where more than 29,000 deaths were recorded in the past week alone.

Europe is once again the epicentre of the pandemic, together with the United States. There is light at the end of the tunnel but it will be six tough months,” Kluge told a news conference, speaking from Copenhagen.

#russia #exceeds

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