分类： 未分类

新冠肺炎疫情：马来西亚宣布进入国家紧急状态

马来西亚最高元首阿卜杜拉1月12日宣布，从12日起马来西亚全国颁布紧急状态，直至8月1日，以遏制新冠疫情进一步蔓延。马来西亚新冠确诊病例及死亡病例与日俱增，导致医疗体系几乎不胜负荷。

马来西亚国家皇宫12日早在公告中指出，最高元首同意政府的建议，成立一个独立委员会，评估疫情情况。他也表示，如果疫情有所改善，该委员会将向其提出建议，以考虑是否提前结束国家紧急状态。

目前尚不知马来西亚国家紧急状态的颁布将如何影响日常生活。但根据宪法，国会将在此期间暂停。

随后，马国首相署（国会及法律事务）官员也证实，国会将无法召开会议，直到8月。

Brazil will be the next country – after India, China, and South Korea – to produce Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus. The production lines will start operating later this week.

“Brazil will start production of Sputnik V on January 15,” the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which finances the development of the vaccine, announced on Monday.

The Russian vaccine will be manufactured by the Brazilian pharmaceutical company União Química at two plants, one in the capital Brasilia and the other in the city of Guarulhos. The firm has already received the cellular material to produce the vaccine from its developer, Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute.

União Química is planning to apply to the medical authorities for the authorization of emergency use of Sputnik V in Brazil, where the situation with Covid-19 is among the worst in the world, with more than 8.11 million confirmed cases and over 203,000 deaths related to the virus.

The RDIF said more than 50 nations have applied to purchase the Russian vaccine, which will require some 1.2 billion doses to be produced. The fund’s partners in Brazil, India, China, South Korea, and elsewhere will work to satisfy the demands of those customers.

In August, Sputnik V was the first vaccine against Covid-19 to be registered anywhere in the world. Trials showed it had an efficacy of 91.4 percent overall, as well as 100 percent effectiveness in preventing severe cases of disease.

The Russian shot is already being used in vaccination campaigns in Serbia, Belarus, Argentina, and Bolivia. On Sunday, Algeria became the first African country to approve Sputnik V.

It’s not quite nuking the virus but the world’s battle against Covid-19 might go from waves of infection to microwaves, under proposals from Russian and Uzbekistani scientists that could see patients treated with radiation.

The press service of the Ural Federal University in Ekaterinburg reported on Monday that a team from the two countries had found that weak doses of X-rays can destroy the genetic makeup of Covid-19, preventing it from replicating.

According to Anatoly Zatsepin, a physics professor at the institute, “the essence of this pioneering idea is that the huge RNA molecule of this virus is forced to deform significantly in many areas along its length when it gets into a human cell.” These bending points, his team say, are an ideal target for electromagnetic waves.

Crucially, the academic adds, in their experiments “it turned out that deformed places along the RNA molecule are a thousand times more sensitive to radiation than molecules of healthy cells. It follows that low doses of radiation harmful to the virus would be absolutely safe for healthy cells.”

This opens up the possibility that X-rays could be used to treat patients who test positive for coronavirus, operating on the same principle as chemotherapy, which damages cancerous cells more than healthy ones. In addition, the findings might mean hospitals and other buildings use radiation to disinfect areas and limit the spread of the pandemic. However, Zatsepin notes that further research will be needed to determine how this mechanism works in the real world.

More than 430 people have died of Covid-19-related complications in Russia in the past 24 hours, representing the largest one-day drop in the number of fatalities since November. However, experts have warned that this might not be a sustainable trend, and instead reflects people staying at home over the New Year holidays.

Trials of a simplified version of the Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine have begun in Russia. While providing less protection, the solution is expected to be easier to distribute and use in emergency mass-vaccination scenarios.
Trials of the vaccine variant, dubbed ‘Sputnik Light,’ kicked off in Russia on Friday, according to the updated national register of medical drugs. It says the first stage of trials will involve some 150 people who have volunteered to get the express shot. The testing will take place at three medical facilities, located in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Unlike the Sputnik V vaccine, which is administered in two doses two weeks apart, the light version comes in the form of a single shot. The new anti-coronavirus solution is basically one of the two components of the original Sputnik V, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev told RT in December. While it offers weaker protection for a shorter period of time compared to the two-dose Sputnik V, it comes in handy as a stopgap solution to major outbreaks.

“It’s sort of like a seasonal flu vaccine… You take it before winter and it protects you over the winter. This is what Sputnik V Light would be doing,” Dmitriev explained.

The simplified solution is expected to have some 85 percent efficacy, Alexander Gintsburg, head of the Moscow Gamaleya Institute which developed the pioneering vaccine, told Russia 24 TV channel last month. This is compared to the latest efficacy estimate of 91.4 percent of the two-dose Sputnik V.

The light version will also provide immunity for a shorter period of time, estimated at three to four months. At the same time, it is believed that even if the vaccine fails to shield the recipient from Covid-19 entirely, a vaccinated individual would experience the coronavirus only in its milder form. Another perk of the light version is that a vaccinated person can get the second component of Sputnik V some three months after the first shot, Gintsburg explained.

It is understood that the light version of the vaccine will only be exported to countries in need, while Russian citizens will continue receiving the regular two-dose Sputnik V. The vaccine’s manufacturers are set to accelerate its production, with some four million doses expected to be produced within the next month, Gintsburg told Russian media on Monday.