A life-saver
It’s a cheap steroid, costing just $1 a course in some countries, but dexamethasone saves lives. The biggest randomised controlled trial of Covid drugs in the world has produced its first breakthrough. Dexamethasone is not a cure-all, but it does prevent the deaths of one in eight people on ventilators, who are the most acutely ill, and one in 25 on other oxygen support. It’s 60 years old and has been well used in intensive care to reduce inflammation, but there were doubts because it can affect the immune system. A 6,000-patient-strong arm of the Oxford-based Recovery trial showed low dose got results with no problematic side-effects. Within hours the the UK government said the NHS in England would use it and others are expected to follow suit.
App scrapped
Following speculation that trials of the UK’s contact-tracing app on the Isle of Wight might have uncovered problems, plus the regular sound of ministers swatting away questions, it was finally confirmed that the NHS contact-tracing app has been ditched. Baroness Dido Harding, the chair of the test-and-trace programme in England, had been playing down expectations, labelling the app a mere “cherry on the cake”. But it was Lord Bethel, the minister for innovation in the Department of Health, who flagged that something was up on Wednesday, saying the app would not be ready until the winter and that it was not a priority anyway. People preferred a phone call from a real human being to an app alert in any case.
The very next day came the government announcement of the demise of the NHS app. The ditched app worked with only 4% of Apple and 75% of Google phones. The two tech firms have their own model, but it will not measure the distance between people as the DHSC wants. They opposed the NHS app because it centrally collected (anonymised) data. So now they will all work together, said the health secretary, Matt Hancock, on a hybrid of some sort.
Meanwhile, the latest contact-tracing statistics from the department show that the teams in the call centres did not reach about a quarter of people testing positive for Covid-19 in the second week of the scheme, between 4 and 10 June.
Science Weekly podcast
Should we be concerned about air conditioning? Following on from several listener questions about the role of air conditioning in spreading or dissipating Covid-19 in buildings and on public transport, Hannah Devlin asks Dr Lena Ciric whether we should be turning our AC systems on or off.
Beijing battling new outbreak
A serious new outbreak of Covid-19 in Beijing affecting at least 200 people was a reminder that new waves of coronavirus infection are inevitable around the world. The Chinese authorities locked down neighbourhoods, closed schools and restaurants, restricted travel and set about testing tens of thousands of people. The outbreak was said to be centred on the Xinfadi wholesale food market, but the virus may have come from Wuhan, travelled to Europe and then been reimported to China.
On Thursday, scientists published the genetic sequence online. An article published on Friday on the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection’s website said the virus came from Europe but was older than the one spreading there. “It could have been hidden in imported frozen food products, or it was lurking in some dark and humid environment such as Xinfadi, with the environment not having been disinfected or sterilised,” it said.
The day before, the commission flagged further concern about markets, which, like the market in Huanan that is the prime suspect for the start of the pandemic, sell live animals. The outbreak underlined the urgent need to improve sanitation standards and minimise health risks at markets, said its report. “The epidemic is a mirror that not only reflects the dirty and messy aspects of wholesale markets but also their low-level management conditions,” it said.
New Zealand also no longer clear of Covid
It was all going so well for New Zealand, which declared it was Covid-free on 8 June and ended restrictions on normal life, to the envy of much of the rest of the world. But then two women, who had travelled from Britain and been released early from what should have been 14 days’ quarantine to visit a dying relative, tested positive for the virus on Monday.
Worse, it emerged that the women had not driven the 400 miles non-stop from Auckland to Wellington, but had met up with friends on the way. Although this was said to be a brief five-minute meeting after the women got lost, 320 of their contacts are being traced and the New Zealand government has been left red-faced. The compassionate grounds for an early release from quarantine will no longer be permitted.
Sport and shopping return in UK
In England, lockdown restrictions on the high street began to lift, marked by long queues desperate to get into Primark – which does not sell online – and other clothes stores after months away. In Bicester shopping village, crowds formed, leading to calls to close it until social distancing can be maintained. EasyJet resumed a limited number of mostly domestic flights, amid concerns that people could not keep their distance onboard.
The Premier League resumed, with the first match, between Aston Villa and Sheffield United, played on Wednesday to an empty stadium and controversy – not over coronavirus and crowds this time, but over a disallowed goal.
