The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday authorized the first rapid coronavirus test that doesn't need any special computer equipment to get results.
The 15-minute BinaxNOW test from Abbott Laboratories will sell for $5, giving it a competitive edge over similar tests that need to be popped into a small machine. The self-contained test is the size of a credit card and is based on the same technology used to test for the flu, strep throat and other infections.
AMSTERDAM/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Two European patients are confirmed to have been re-infected with COVID-19, raising concerns about people’s immunity to the coronavirus as the world struggles to tame the pandemic.
The cases, in Belgium and the Netherlands, follow a report this week by researchers in Hong Kong about a man there who had contracted a different strain of the virus four and a half months after being declared recovered - the first such second infection to be documented.
Two patients were reinfected with the coronavirus in Europe, according to local broadcasters who confirmed the incidents with virologists.
The patients, one from Belgium and the other from the Netherlands, were confirmed to have been reinfected with COVID-19, Reuters reported.
Researchers in Hong Kong on Monday reported what appears to be the first confirmed case of Covid-19 reinfection, a 33-year-old man who was first infected by SARS-CoV-2 in late March and then, four and a half months later, seemingly contracted the virus again while traveling in Europe.
The case raises questions about the durability of immune protection from the coronavirus. But it was also met with caution by other scientists, who questioned the extent to which the case pointed to broader concerns about reinfection.
Researchers in Hong Kong on Monday reported what appears to be the first confirmed case of Covid-19 reinfection, a 33-year-old man who was first infected by SARS-CoV-2 in late March and then, four and a half months later, seemingly contracted the virus again while traveling in Europe.
The case raises questions about the durability of immune protection from the coronavirus. But it was also met with caution by other scientists, who questioned the extent to which the case pointed to broader concerns about reinfection.
CNN) President Donald Trump on Saturday accused, without providing any evidence, the US Food and Drug Administration of deliberately delaying coronavirus vaccine trials, pressuring the man he had picked to head the agency.
(CNN)Another 134,000 people could die in the US from Covid-19 by December if no further safety measures are mandated -- and the actual number probably would be much worse if mandates are relaxed, researchers say.
Three pop concerts are being staged on one day in Germany to enable scientists to investigate the risks of such mass indoor events during the pandemic.
Some 4,000 healthy volunteers aged between 18 and 50 were urged to sign up for Saturday's study in Leipzig, carried out by Halle University.
Singer-songwriter Tim Bendzko agreed to perform at all three successive gigs.
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) says he hopes the coronavirus pandemic will be over in under two years.
Speaking in Geneva, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the Spanish flu of 1918 had taken two years to overcome.
But he added that current advances in technology could enable the world to halt the virus "in a shorter time".
"Of course with more connectiveness, the virus has a better chance of spreading," he said.
To many college students, the prospect of a year of school during a pandemic — with virtual classes, restricted movements and no parties — is a huge bummer. Some Silicon Valley startups, hungry for young talent, see it as an opportunity.
