COVID-19 Update May 27, 2020

This article contains:

Reopening After COVID-19
Drugs Combo as Treatment for COVID-19

Reopening After COVID-19

Written By: Kandharika Bamrungketudom

Thailand:

Many businesses in Bangkok have already reopened around April. New additions and guidelines have been added since. Some additions, as of May 16, 2020, are the reopening of meeting rooms for conferences at hotels, day-care nursing homes for the elderly, shooting sets, fitness centers, gyms, indoor sport centers and public swimming pools. All of these have specific guidelines attached to them to ensure disease control.

Italy:

Italy became one of the epicenters for the COVID-19 outbreak; however, the lockdowns have been lifted around mid-May and the city has been recovering since. As the businesses reopen after the lockdown is over, the citizens try to follow the guidelines of social-distancing still, and try to stay at least six feet apart from one another in public. The Italian government has also allowed for the beaches to reopen, with guidelines stating that “10 square metres must be dedicated to each beach umbrella, which equates to around four people.” Famous historical sites such as the ruins of Pompeii have reopened to local visitors. Its borders, however, will not be opened for foreigners until sometime in June.

India:

In March, the Indian government had announced “one of the strictest lockdowns in the world,” which affected 1.3 billion people living inside of India. Many experienced job losses and food insecurity due to the lockdown. As of May, however, the country is lifting the lockdown as well. Although large gatherings and international flights remain prohibited, domestic flights, forms of commerce and manufacturing are now permitted. The lifting of the lockdown brings another concern for India, because of the number of people living in the country, as this may be unsafe considering how the virus is transmitted.

The United States of America:

The US has also lifted the lockdown after the trends of decline in deaths and new cases throughout many states. Each state, however, has imposed different measures of how to handle the lifting of the lockdown. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has also passed down specific guidelines for public sectors. For example, desks in school are to be placed 6 feet apart facing the same direction, with temperature checks on students and staff, and restaurants are to limit seatings in order to contain disease spread.

Spain:

In addition to Italy, Spain was also one of the epicenters of the COVID-19 pandemic, with 235,772 cases of infections and more than 28,700 deaths. Thankfully, there has also been a decline in the number of coronavirus cases within Spain as well. Because of this, the lockdown in the country is slowly being lifted. Taking the importance of Spain’s tourism in its economy into consideration, Spain’s Tourism Minister Reyes Maroto said that foreign tourists would be allowed to enter the country starting in July. Maroto predicts that the two-week quarantine regulations on visitors will be lifted by that time. As of now, the city has reopened for locals, with beaches, restaurants, bars and museums opened for local visitors in small groups.

Drugs Combo as Treatment for COVID-19

Written By: Paphapin Pairojtanachai

In the UK, it has been widely suggested by leaders of drug trials, including Dr. John Wright of Bradford Royal Infirmary (BRI), that drugs combo may be the best outcome for the COVID-19 treatment trials. Eight clinical trials are currently taking place at BRI, and the greatest of them is the Randomized Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy (RECOVERY) trial. Over the past two months, over 10,000 patients throughout the nation have been recruited as participants for this trial, and it is possible that the first results could be released by the end of June before additional details are available. Martin Landray, the trial's deputy chief investigator and professor of medicine and epidemiology at the Nuffield Department of Population Health, ensured that “There's not likely to be any single one ‘big winner’. I think for all of us, that is extraordinarily unlikely, but much more likely that several drugs may have what we might think of as 'modest' effects.”

During the RECOVERY trial, participants are randomly assigned to receive either the usual hospital care or one of four active drug treatments. These drugs consist of: lopinavir-ritonavir (a drug frequently used as HIV treatment), dexamethasone (a type of steroid that reduces inflammation), hydroxychloroquine (an anti-malarial drug), and azithromycin (a widely used antibiotic). Furthermore, last week, a patient at BRI was also enlisted as a participant for a trial for an unnamed drug — made by AstraZeneca (a pharmaceutical company) — known to block cytokines, thus diminishing the severity of the cytokine storm, or the overreaction of the immune system. This small trial is a part of other trials collectively known as the Accord trial, which aims to evaluate drugs that could potentially be added to the RECOVERY trial. Other drugs added to the trial include remdesivir, which helps prevent the SARS-CoV-2 virus from reproducing in the body.

After the first randomization, COVID-19 patients with continuous symptoms are once again randomly assigned to be treated either with tocilizumab, an immunosuppressive drug, or with typical hospital treatment. Professor Peter Horby, the treatment chief’s investigator and professor of emerging infectious diseases and global health in the Nuffield Department of Medicine, said that new drugs, as well as convalescent plasma (the plasma of those who have recovered, which is rich with antibodies against the virus), are going to be added to the trial as they continue to move forward. Mike Murphy, professor of transfusion medicine at the University of Oxford, also added that “this is a great opportunity to understand more about the value of plasma transfusions.”