By RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil’s P1 coronavirus variant, behind a deadly COVID-19 surge in the Latin American country that has raised international alarm, is mutating in ways that could make it better able to evade antibodies, according to scientists studying the virus.Research conducted by the public health institute Fiocruz into the variants circulating in Brazil found mutations in the spike region of the virus that is used to enter and infect cells.Those changes, the scientists said, could make the virus more resistant to vaccines - which target the spike protein - with potentially...…By RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil’s P1 coronavirus variant, behind a deadly COVID-19 surge in the Latin American country that has raised international alarm, is mutating in ways that could make it better able to evade antibodies, according to scientists studying the virus.Research conducted by the public health institute Fiocruz into the variants circulating in Brazil found mutations in the spike region of the virus that is used to enter and infect cells.Those changes, the scientists said, could make the virus more resistant to vaccines - which target the spike protein - with potentially...WW…

By RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil’s P1 coronavirus variant, behind a deadly COVID-19 surge in the Latin American country that has raised international alarm, is mutating in ways that could make it better able to evade antibodies, according to scientists studying the virus.Research conducted by the public health institute Fiocruz into the variants circulating in Brazil found mutations in the spike region of the virus that is used to enter and infect cells.Those changes, the scientists said, could make the virus more resistant to vaccines - which target the spike protein - with potentially...…By RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil’s P1 coronavirus variant, behind a deadly COVID-19 surge in the Latin American country that has raised international alarm, is mutating in ways that could make it better able to evade antibodies, according to scientists studying the virus.Research conducted by the public health institute Fiocruz into the variants circulating in Brazil found mutations in the spike region of the virus that is used to enter and infect cells.Those changes, the scientists said, could make the virus more resistant to vaccines - which target the spike protein - with potentially...WW…

By , SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazil has recorded its first confirmed case of the highly contagious coronavirus variant discovered in South Africa, a fresh danger sign for a country already ravaged by the world’s worst daily death toll and scrambling to make space for burials.Scientists warned on Wednesday that yet another new variant could be emerging in Brazil’s inland city of Belo Horizonte.The Federal University of Minas Gerais said in a statement that two samples taken in the city included a previously unseen set of 18 mutations, including some in the same genes modified by the South...…By , SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Brazil has recorded its first confirmed case of the highly contagious coronavirus variant discovered in South Africa, a fresh danger sign for a country already ravaged by the world’s worst daily death toll and scrambling to make space for burials.Scientists warned on Wednesday that yet another new variant could be emerging in Brazil’s inland city of Belo Horizonte.The Federal University of Minas Gerais said in a statement that two samples taken in the city included a previously unseen set of 18 mutations, including some in the same genes modified by the South...WW…

By RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil on Thursday registered a record 100,158 new coronavirus cases within 24 hours, the Health Ministry said, underlining the scale of a snowballing outbreak that is becoming a major political crisis for President Jair Bolsonaro.The record caseload, along with 2,777 more COVID-19 deaths, comes a day after Brazil surpassed 300,000 fatalities from the pandemic, the world’s worst death toll after the United States.Brazil’s outbreak has set weekly records due to a patchy vaccine rollout, a lack of national coordination and an infectious new variant. Critics,...…By RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazil on Thursday registered a record 100,158 new coronavirus cases within 24 hours, the Health Ministry said, underlining the scale of a snowballing outbreak that is becoming a major political crisis for President Jair Bolsonaro.The record caseload, along with 2,777 more COVID-19 deaths, comes a day after Brazil surpassed 300,000 fatalities from the pandemic, the world’s worst death toll after the United States.Brazil’s outbreak has set weekly records due to a patchy vaccine rollout, a lack of national coordination and an infectious new variant. Critics,...WW…

By , RIO DE JANEIRO/SAO PAULO (Reuters) - As Brazil’s coronavirus outbreak spirals out of control, the country is facing a dangerous new shortage, threatening to drive fatalities even higher: a lack of staff in intensive care units.Some medical professionals are burned out after months of grueling, soul-sapping work. Others are simply unable to keep up with the endless flow of critical COVID-19 patients pushing the country’s healthcare system to the brink.“Intensive care doctors are a commodity in short supply,” César Eduardo Fernandes, the president of the Brazilian Medical Association...…By , RIO DE JANEIRO/SAO PAULO (Reuters) - As Brazil’s coronavirus outbreak spirals out of control, the country is facing a dangerous new shortage, threatening to drive fatalities even higher: a lack of staff in intensive care units.Some medical professionals are burned out after months of grueling, soul-sapping work. Others are simply unable to keep up with the endless flow of critical COVID-19 patients pushing the country’s healthcare system to the brink.“Intensive care doctors are a commodity in short supply,” César Eduardo Fernandes, the president of the Brazilian Medical Association...WW…

By , BRASILIA/RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazilian health regulator Anvisa on Sunday approved emergency use of COVID-19 vaccines from China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd and Britain’s AstraZeneca, clearing the way for immunizations as the pandemic enters a deadly second wave.Minutes after Anvisa’s board voted unanimously to approve both vaccines, Monica Calazans, a 54-year-old nurse in Sao Paulo, became the first person to be inoculated in the country, receiving the Chinese vaccine known as CoronaVac.President Jair Bolsonaro, a coronavirus skeptic who has refused to take a vaccine himself, is under...…By , BRASILIA/RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Brazilian health regulator Anvisa on Sunday approved emergency use of COVID-19 vaccines from China’s Sinovac Biotech Ltd and Britain’s AstraZeneca, clearing the way for immunizations as the pandemic enters a deadly second wave.Minutes after Anvisa’s board voted unanimously to approve both vaccines, Monica Calazans, a 54-year-old nurse in Sao Paulo, became the first person to be inoculated in the country, receiving the Chinese vaccine known as CoronaVac.President Jair Bolsonaro, a coronavirus skeptic who has refused to take a vaccine himself, is under...WW…

United States RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - The governor of the federal district in which Brazil’s capital Brasilia is located closed the area around the presidential palace, ministries, Supreme Court and Congress on Sunday to keep right-wing supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro from gathering there. Governor Ibaneis Rocha forbade car and pedestrian traffic along the main thoroughfare that houses Brazil’s most important federal government buildings, preventing the protests held by Bolsonaro’s supporters that have become a regular occurrence in the area. The state government issued the decree...…United States RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - The governor of the federal district in which Brazil’s capital Brasilia is located closed the area around the presidential palace, ministries, Supreme Court and Congress on Sunday to keep right-wing supporters of President Jair Bolsonaro from gathering there. Governor Ibaneis Rocha forbade car and pedestrian traffic along the main thoroughfare that houses Brazil’s most important federal government buildings, preventing the protests held by Bolsonaro’s supporters that have become a regular occurrence in the area. The state government issued the decree...WW…