• Brazil reports an increase in coronavirus deaths among younger people; in March, deaths among people ages 20-29 increased from 242 in January to 505; they more than doubled among Brazilians ages 30- 39, reaching 2,030 and deaths among people in their 40s increased from 1,823 to 4,150. The rise in cases among younger people is caused by variants that are more contagious and make people sicker than older versions, the loosening of restrictions and lack of access to coronavirus vaccines. Source
• A newly discovered coronavirus variant found in people traveling from Tanzania to Angola has more mutations than any other version. The variant, which comes from a Chinese lineage, will be grown in the laboratory at Krisp, where researchers will study it in detail. Source
• New Zealand announces that it will require visitors to remain in the country for six months; those with shorter stays will have to pay $2,150 for the required two-week quarantine. Source
• Denmark has extended its suspension of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine to 15 April, pending further investigation of abnormal blood clotting and bleeding among vaccine recipients. Source
• France expands its lockdown to include three more regions for a four-week period. Source
• The EMA approved regdanvimab, a monoclonal antibody from Celltrion currently in phase III, for use in adults with COVID-19 who do not require supplemental oxygen and who are at high risk of progressing to severe illness, although it cautioned that “…the results were not robust enough to reach a firm conclusion on the medicine’s benefits at this point in time.” Source
• Former US CDC Chief, Dr Robert Redfield told CNN that he believes that coronavirus originated – and escaped -from a lab in Wuhan China in 2019. Source
