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 AstraZeneca says antibody treatment failed
Anglo-Swedish drugmaker AstraZeneca said on Tuesday a study of its
monoclonal antibody treatment, AZD7442, did not meet the main goal
of preventing symptomatic COVID-19 in people recently exposed to the
novel coronavirus.
The company said the participants in the trial were unvaccinated
adults older than 18 years with confirmed exposure to a person with
the coronavirus within the past eight days.
AZD7442 reduced the risk of developing symptomatic COVID-19 by 33%
compared to a placebo, which was not statistically significant, the
company reported.
Russian regions tighten COVID-19 curbs
Several Russian regions tightened coronavirus restrictions on
Tuesday and said they were increasing hospital capacity for an
influx of patients after a steep rise in cases.
Authorities reported more than 14,700 infections on Sunday, the
largest one-day tally since February. Over the weekend, St
Petersburg, which is hosting matches in the Euro 2020 soccer finals,
and Moscow said they were imposing new curbs.
The local government in the far eastern region of Primorye said on
Tuesday two hospitals would open in the coming days in the cities of
Ussuriysk and Vladivostok, and that they had set up hundreds of new
beds since April.
Delhi defies social distancing norms
In India's capital, Delhi, thousands of commuters crowded into
underground train stations and shopping malls on Tuesday, prompting
some doctors to warn it could lead to a resurgence in infections.
Major Indian cities have begun lifting strict lockdowns as the
nationwide tally of new infections has dropped to its lowest level
in more than two months.
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 But disease experts and doctors
have cautioned that a race towards resuming
business as usual would compromise vaccination
efforts as only about 5% of all 950 million
eligible adults have been inoculated.
Malaysia grants conditional approval for CanSino, J&J shots
Malaysia has granted conditional approval for emergency use to the
single dose COVID-19 vaccines manufactured by China's CanSino
Biologics and U.S. drugmaker Johnson & Johnson, the government said
on Tuesday.
The Southeast Asian country has been ramping up its vaccination
programme amid a fresh round of lockdowns imposed this month to curb
a surge in infections.
Malaysia would obtain Johnson & Johnson's vaccines via the global
COVAX facility backed by the World Health Organization, the health
ministry said. Australia reports two new cases
Australia's Victoria state on Tuesday reported two new locally
acquired cases of COVID-19 in the state capital Melbourne, both
linked to an existing cluster that prompted renewed social
distancing measures in the city.
Victoria, Australia's second-most populous state, had earlier in the
day reported no new local cases, using data for the 24 hours to
midnight on Tuesday, fuelling hopes that movement restrictions would
be eased later in the week.
The two new cases, both primary contacts of prior cases, were
recorded after the midnight cut-off and will be added to Wednesday's
data.
(Compiled by Linda Noakes; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
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