Death wish?

India to resume regular international flight from mid-December to and from all but 14 countries with which India has existing air bubble agreement. The decision comes at a time when a new strain of Covid-19 has been detected in South Africa, Hong Kong and Botswana.

> India to resume international flights from December 15

> US joins EU, UK in restricting S Africa flights

> Israel to shut its borders to foreigners

> Japan bans entry of foreign travellers

⚠️BREAKING—HOTEL CROSS TRANSMISSION OF #B11529—Traveler from South Africa🇿🇦 flew to Hong Kong🇭🇰 with new variant—but wasn’t discovered until 4th day of quarantine on 2nd PCR. Another guest across hallway cross-infected—only positive on 8th day on 4th PCR! Both Pfizer vaccinated🧵 pic.twitter.com/USS2EBzJKA

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) November 25, 2021

2) the viral load of these two with #B11529 in Hong Kong hotels were VERY high. PCR Ct values of 18 and 19!!! That’s insanely high considering they were negative on recent PCR tests. Damn, looks like vaccine evasion could be real with this variant. https://t.co/s4UQS2wi8S

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) November 25, 2021

3) and hell yes it’s very airborne. The hotel guests were in different room across the hallway from each other. Environmental samples found the virus in 25 of 87 swab across both rooms. https://t.co/LbrThuLGOu

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) November 25, 2021

4) I think border and travel restrictions make sense. Especially since Hong Kong 🇭🇰 only caught the case because of a mandatory hotel quarantine. Which countries in the west still have that??? Almost none. https://t.co/owAaKS9lFa

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) November 25, 2021

• B.1.1.529 has 32 mutations on the spike protein alone. This is an insane amount of change. As a comparison, Delta had 9 changes on the spike protein. We are particularly interested in mutations that could do any of the following:
  
  1. Increase transmissibility;
  
  2. Escape our vaccines or infection-induced immunity; and/or
  
  3. Increase severity (hospitalization or death).
  
  B.1.1.529 has the potential to do all three. It will take weeks to understand what these new mutations mean or, more importantly, the combination of so many mutations. Keep in mind that the number of mutations does NOT always equal more severe.