New research for COVID-19: What we now know about the virus

The novel coronavirus has now wreaked havoc for nearly 10 months among humans. The virus, which puzzled scientists in the earlier days has now become a somewhat familiar enemy. New research is throwing up different facts and explanations about SARS-Cov-2, helping us decipher the dreaded virus better. Here are some latest findings.

28 days on surfaces

The latest study shows that SARS-Cov 2 caused by novel coronavirus can survive for 28 days on smooth surfaces such as stainless steel, phone screens,glass, plastic and banknotes.
Busting the previous research according to which Covid-19 could survive for three to seven days on smooth surfaces, the recent study by researchers at Australian agency CSIRO showed that the virus can remain infectious for up to 28 days -- longer than the flu virus-- when kept in the dark at room temperature (degrees Celsius [68 Fahrenheit]).
The research paper was published in the Virology Journal on October 7.

Reinfection may cause more severe symptoms

The coronavirus infected patients may experience more severe symptoms the second time they are infected, according to research released on October 13, also confirming it is possible to catch the deadly coronavirus disease more than just once. A study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal charts the first confirmed case of COVID-19 reinfection in the United States - the country worst hit by the pandemic- and indicates that exposure to the virus may not guarantee future immunity. The patient in question had to be administered oxygen support the second time as symptoms were more severe.

Coronavirus may result in behavioural changes

Confusion, loss of smell, behavioural changes are some of the symptoms of the novel coronavirus as witnessed in Covid-19 patients lately. Some people infected with coronavirus experience delirium, confusion, disorientation and agitation. As per Robert Stevens, MD, Johns Hopkins University, at least half of the COVID-19 infected patients have shown neurological symptoms. However, scientists are still struggling to understand why the brain may be harmed due to the virus.

Chances of stroke or brain haemorrhage

Stroke, brain haemorrhage and memory loss are also some of the other serious repercussions for coronavirus infected patients. According to a study published in The Lancet, a research was conducted with a sample size of 125 Covid patients in the UK who had neurological or psychiatric effects.
In the results, 62 per cent of the sample size had experienced damage to the brain's blood supply, such as strokes and haemorrhages, and 31 per cent had altered mental states, such as confusion or prolonged unconsciousness - sometimes accompanied by encephalitis, the swelling of brain tissue. Ten people, who had altered mental states, developed psychosis.

Young healthy people may not get vaccine till 2022

According to WHO's chief scientist, Dr Soumya Swaminathan, health workers, elderly and frontline workers might get the COVID-19 vaccine first, though the prioritisation details are still being worked out by the WHO and its advisory group.
Swaminathan added that by 2021 the world will hopefully have at least one safe and effective coronavirus vaccine. However, it will be in "limited quantities". Those who are young and healthy will probably not get the vaccine till 2022.

Covid-19 antibodies last at least three months

People infected with Covid-19 develop antibodies targeting the new coronavirus that last for at least three months, according to two reports published this week in Science Immunology. The two studies, together involving nearly 750 patients, both point to immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies, which start showing up well after an infection begins, as the longest-lasting.

Covid-19 symptoms could stay on for months

Three months after becoming ill, many Covid-19 patients still have symptoms, two studies confirm, and the more severe the initial infections, the higher the odds of persistent problems. In Spain, doctors checked back with 108 patients, including 44 who had been severely ill.
At 12 weeks after diagnosis, 76% still reported after-effects, with 40% reporting three or more coronavirus-related health issues, doctors said in a paper posted on Thursday on medRxiv ahead of peer review. The most common complaints were shortness of breath, physical weakness, cough, chest pain, palpitations, and psychological and cognitive disorders.

Coronavirus rarely travels from mother to newborn

Transmission of the new coronavirus from mother to newborn is rare, doctors from New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Centre reported in JAMA Pediatrics. They studied 101 babies born to 100 mothers with Covid-19, including 10 whose mothers had been severely ill. Almost all the babies tested negative for the virus, while tests in two newborns had indeterminate results.
If these two indeterminate results are considered positive, the overall incidence of transmission was 2.0%. Even with a 2% transmission rate, "none of our babies exhibited clinical symptoms of Covid-19, either during their newborn nursery stay or during ... the first few weeks of life," co-author Dr. Dani Dumitriu told Reuters Health by email. Roughly 90% of the newborns were breastfed at least partially.

Blood cancer patients most vulnerable to Covid-19

As per the new study, blood cancer patients are more vulnerable to the effects of the coronavirus infection. The new study, published in Lancet Oncology by the UK Coronavirus Cancer Monitoring Project (UKCCMP), found that blood cancer patients were particularly at risk with 57 per cent higher chances of severe disease if they contracted the coronavirus.  This was when compared to other cancer patients, such as breast cancer, which was shown to have the lowest risk overall.

Virus sensitive to heat

At 20 degrees Celsius, the virus survives for 28 days. When the temperature is raised to 30 degrees Celsius, the survival rate drops to 7 days and at 40 degrees, it plunges to just 24 hours -- revealed the study conducted by Australian researchers. "Infectious virus survived less than 24 hours at 40 degrees Celsius on some surfaces," the research paper in the Virology Journal said.
The Lancet suggests that the virus stopped being infectious within just 5 minutes when the temperature was increased to 70 degrees Celsius. "The virus is highly stable at 4 degrees Celsius," the Lancet study said.

Covid may spread more via respiratory droplets during winter

While the transmission of the novel coronavirus through small aerosol particles is more significant in summer, direct contact with respiratory droplets may be more pronounced during winter, the modelling study, published in the journal Nano Letters, noted.
"We found that in most situations, respiratory droplets travel longer distances than the 6-foot social distance recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)," said Yanying Zhu, co-author of the study from the University of California (UC) Santa Barbara in the US.