Health Alerts

Mitigation measures implemented across several European countries to stem COVID-19 case surges are behind the biggest weekly decline in global infection rates since September, but on Nov 30 the WHO director-general expressed extreme caution warning that any gains are easily lost. Increases in new case reporting have been seen in other regions: the US, parts of Brazil, Mexico and Colombia in the Americas; Iran, Jordan and Morocco in the Eastern Mediterranean; Indonesia in SE Asia; and South Korea in the Western Pacific region. In Africa, the WHO regional office is reporting a spike in cases in Uganda which is centred in and around the capital Kampala, however national spread is said to be significant which is likely due to non-adherence to physical distancing and mask wearing. Across the continent, the top five countries recording most cases in November were South Africa, Kenya, Algeria, Ethiopia and Uganda. More in the Dec 1 WHO epi update. Read More

In related news:

-COVID-19 vaccines FAQs answered by the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS).

-Plane, ferry and train travellers from countries not in the UK’s travel corridors (which include both Australia and New Zealand) will soon have the option to pre-book a COVID-19 test which they will take five days into their period of self-isolation (to potentially reduce the quarantine time) – part of a ‘Test to release for international travel’ strategy. Read more

- From Imperial College, a global analysis of the different social settings where SARS-CoV-2 transmission takes place found that among indoor settings, ‘households show the highest transmission rates’, with secondary attack rates estimated to be just over 20 percent. Other findings included: the chance of an asymptomatic infected person infecting a close contact was approx. one quarter of the chance for a symptomatic infected person infecting his or her close contact. Read more