Active Covid cases dip to 2,687
China Covid: Around 92% of the population in the Chinese capital of Beijing will have COVID by January 31, a new study published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Medicine has revealed.
Nearly 76% of Beijing’s population had contracted COVID-19 by December 22. According to researchers from the University of Hong Kong, these numbers are expected to reach 92% by January 31.
In Beijing in November and December when China relaxed its zero-COVID regulation, the researchers studied the reproduction rate of the Omicron strain BF.7. Following the policy modifications, there was a nationwide increase in instances.
According to the study, the reproduction rate of the virus increased from 1.04 on November 11 to 3.44 a week later, or “one individual carrying the virus might infect 3.44 others.” Their simulations predicted that on December 11, there would be a high of 1.03 million daily cases.
“Surveillance programmes should be rapidly set up to monitor the spread and evolution of Sars-CoV-2 infections, and further work should be done to track the transmissibility, incidence and infection rate of the epidemic,” the researchers wrote.
The number of people with severe COVID-19 infections peaked on January 5. The country reported about 13,000 COVID-related hospital deaths between January 13 and 19.
China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said last week that 681 hospitalised patients died of respiratory failure, and 11,977 died of other diseases combined with a COVID infection.
Also Read: COVID-19: Over 900 Million People Infected In China Reveals Peking University
Japan’s Unique Batteryless and Wireless Covid Detector
Researchers have developed a unique batteryless and wireless device that can detect coronavirus in the air if your surroundings contain COVID-19 particles or droplets the moment they enter the vicinity.
The device, which requires no batteries, employs a magnetostrictive clad plate composed of iron, cobalt and nickel, generating power via alternative magnetisation caused by vibration.
The vibration resonance frequency of the ‘Fe-Co/Ni’ plates, which were coated with the receptor protein coronaviruses use to enter our cells, changes when the virus is absorbed, alluding to Covid-19 particles being in the air, said the team from Tohoku University in Japan.
“We know that resonance frequency changes when the weight of the magnetostrictive material changes, but we set out to answer whether this is also the case when a virus is absorbed and if this absorption is detectable,” said Fumio Narita, co-author of the study and professor at Tohoku University’s Graduate School of Environmental Studies.
To answer these questions, the group created the bio-recognition layer, choosing to focus on human coronavirus 229E (HCoV-229E) – one of the seven types of coronavirus that affects humans.
They immersed the clad plate in a CD13 protein solution and performed sensing experiments.
When the coated clad plate was subjected to bending vibration, the resonance frequency decreased after HCoV-229 was absorbed, verifying whether the charged power could transmit virus detection as a signal.
“We were able to confirm that the magnetostrictive composite material can detect the virus and transmit this detection data using power generated by itself,”
