DOH advises recovered COVID-19 patients to remain cautious
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Health advised the public, especially recovered coronavirus patients, to stay alert and continue practicing necessary precautions to avoid contracting the respiratory illness.
The DOH issued this advisory Tuesday night after researchers in Hong Kong identified what they said was the first confirmed case of COVID-19 reinfection worldwide.
Researchers in Hong Kong University found that a 33-year old man who had contracted and recovered from the disease got infected with coronavirus again.
The DOH said “no evidence-based evaluation” can be done until findings of the study are published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.
“Moreover, data on post-infection immunity are also lacking, according to the World Health Organization,” the department said, adding it is closely monitoring the matter and is ready to act on it once reliable information is available.
But the agency urged the public not to let their guard down
“We advise the public to always err on the side of caution. What we do not want to happen is for people who have been infected with COVID-19 in the past to assume they are already immune to the disease,” the DOH said.
“Until we fully understand what we are up against, everyone should always follow the minimum health standards (using face masks, handwashing and physical distancing),” it added.
There have been many cases of suspected reinfection worldwide but none were able to rule out the possibility that the virus has remained latent and reappeared after weeks or months.
The country’s coronavirus caseload reached 197,164 as of Tuesday. Of the figure, 132,396 have recovered, while 3,038 have died. — with report from Agence France-Presse
Follow this page for updates on a mysterious pneumonia outbreak that has struck dozens of people in China.
New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says on Sunday that he had contracted COVID-19, testing positive at a key point in his flailing campaign for re-election.
Hipkins saYS on his official social media feed that he would need to isolate for up to five days -- less than two weeks before his country's general election.
The leader of the centre-left Labour Party said he started to experience cold symptoms on Saturday and had cancelled most of his weekend engagements. — AFP
The World Health Organization and US health authorities say Friday they are closely monitoring a new variant of COVID-19, although the potential impact of BA.2.86 is currently unknown.
The WHO classified the new variant as one under surveillance "due to the large number (more than 30) of spike gene mutations it carries", it wrote in a bulletin about the pandemic late Thursday.
So far, the variant has only been detected in Israel, Denmark and the United States. — AFP
The World Health Organization says on Friday that the number of new COVID-19 cases reported worldwide rose by 80% in the last month, days after designating a new "variant of interest".
The WHO declared in May that Covid is no longer a global health emergency, but has warned that the virus will continue to circulate and mutate, causing occasional spikes in infections, hospitalisations and deaths.
In its weekly update, the UN agency said that nations reported nearly 1.5 million new cases from July 10 to August 6, an 80% increase compared to the previous 28 days. — AFP
The head of US intelligence says that there was no evidence that the COVID-19 virus was created in the Chinese government's Wuhan research lab.
In a declassified report, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) says they had no information backing recent claims that three scientists at the lab were some of the very first infected with COVID-19 and may have created the virus themselves.
Drawing on intelligence collected by various member agencies of the US intelligence community (IC), the ODNI report says some scientists at the Wuhan lab had done genetic engineering of coronaviruses similar to COVID-19. — AFP
Boris Johnson deliberately misled MPs over Covid lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street when he was prime minister, a UK parliament committee ruled on Thursday.
The cross-party Privileges Committee said Johnson, 58, would have been suspended as an MP for 90 days for "repeated contempts (of parliament) and for seeking to undermine the parliamentary process".
But he avoided any formal sanction by his peers in the House of Commons by resigning as an MP last week.
In his resignation statement last Friday, Johnson pre-empted publication of the committee's conclusions, claiming a political stitch-up, even though the body has a majority from his own party.
He was unrepentant again on Thursday, accusing the committee of being "anti-democratic... to bring about what is intended to be the final knife-thrust in a protracted political assassination".
Calling it "beneath contempt", he said it was "for the people of this to decide who sits in parliament, not Harriet Harman", the veteran opposition Labour MP who chaired the seven-person committee. — AFP
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