And five more clotting cases linked to AstraZeneca vaccine in Australia.
Welcome to The Medical Republic’s COVID Catch-Up.
It’s the day’s COVID-19 news in one convenient post. Email bianca@biancanogrady.com with any tips, comments or feedback.
6 May
- Wife of Sydney’s mystery COVID-19 case tests positive, and restrictions introduced for Greater Sydney.
- Five more clotting cases in Australia linked to AstraZeneca vaccine.
- Nearly half of solid organ transplant recipients don’t develop antibodies after COVID-19 vaccination.
- Latest COVID-19 infection numbers from around Australia.
Greater Sydney will be placed under restrictions for three days, after a second case of community-acquired COVID-19 emerged and fragments of the virus were detected at the Marrickville sewage treatment facility.
The second case is the wife of the man who was diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 infection on 4 May despite having no history of overseas travel or contact with quarantine facilities.
Genomic testing has since connected that virus to a returned traveller in hotel quarantine in Sydney, but authorities are yet to identify the missing link between the two.
NSW Health has released an expanded list of Sydney venues of concern visited by the two cases, which include locations in the eastern suburbs, city, northern beaches and inner west.
Restrictions will also be introduced from 5pm this evening for the Greater Sydney area, including Wollongong and the Blue Mountains. Homes are restricted to 20 visitors a day, including children; masks are compulsory on public transport and in all indoor public areas; only two visitors a day for aged-care residents; and no singing or dancing in indoor venues.
The restrictions are imposed until at least midnight Sunday 9 May.
Five more cases of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia likely to be linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine have been reported in Australia, according to the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
The patients in question range in age from 51 to 74 years, three men and two women. The brings the total number of cases to 11, from around 1.4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Four of the previous reported cases have now been discharged from hospital, but one remains hospitalised.
Meanwhile, nearly 2.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in Australia.
Around half of solid organ transplant recipients show no measurable SARS-CoV-2 antibodies after two doses of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, research suggests.
A study published in JAMA reported outcomes in 658 transplant recipients who received two doses of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine. While antibodies were only detected in 15% of participants after the first dose, within a month of the second dose 54% had detectable antibodies. However 46% had no measurable antibodies after either the first or second dose.
“Although no threshold has been established for protective immunity, antibody levels were well below that which has been observed in immunocompetent vaccines,” the authors wrote, suggesting that a substantial number of transplant recipients would remain at risk of infection even after two doses of vaccine.
“Future studies should address interventions to improve vaccine responses in this population, including additional booster doses or immunosuppression modulation,” they wrote.
Here are the latest COVID-19 infection numbers from around Australia to 9pm Wednesday:
National – 29,865 with 910 deaths
ACT – 124 (0)
NSW – 5506 (10)
NT – 166 (0)
QLD – 1568 (0)
SA – 733 (1)
TAS – 234 (0)
VIC – 20,524 (0)
WA – 1010 (2)
