• The official global death toll from COVID-19 reaches five million. Brazil, Britain, the EU and the US, which make up one-eighth of the world’s population, account for nearly half of all deaths. COVID-19 has become the world’s third leading cause of death, after heart disease and stroke. Source
• As China sticks to its “COVID-zero” strategy, people who suddenly cannot return homes due to escalating restrictions and snap lockdowns are criticizing these rules on social media. In Ruili, which borders Myanmar, people have been under lockdowns four times during the past seven months; residents are largely prohibited from leaving as the virus keeps creeping over from Myanmar, where it is rampant.
But harsh measures continue. Bloomberg reports that after a woman in a nearby town tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, officials in Shanghai locked down Disneyland until every one of its nearly 34,000 visitors was tested, keeping them there until midnight. All were negative, but they had to remain in home isolation for two days and undergo re-testing two weeks later. Source
• Stanley Erck, Novavax’s Chief Executive Officer, says that the manufacturing problems delaying its experimental coronavirus vaccine have been resolved, and that by December he expects to produce 150 million doses per month with the company’s partner, Serum Institute of India. Source
• WHO reopens the application process for its Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens, seeking three more experts. Source