Focus on Arts and Ecology

November 19, 2021 

Confirmed cases on the Chinese mainland now total 98,427, with the death toll unchanged since January at 4,636. 

Here are some headlines:

• Northeast China's port city of Dalian is now the epicenter of the Chinese mainland's latest COVID-19 outbreak, which began in mid-October
• Hong Kong Disneyland reopened on Thursday after being closed for a day over safety concerns following a visit by a confirmed COVID-19 patient
• A foreign athlete participating in the Bobsleigh World Cup in Beijing, a preparatory tournament for the 2022 Winter Olympics, tested positive for COVID-19 in a daily test on November 18 and was later determined to be asymptomatic, authorities said
• Beijing implemented tight new travel restrictions beginning Tuesday.  Anyone who has been to regions that have reported local cases within 14 days is barred from entering the capital

China has also been making headways in the COVID-19 medicine world:

• The Institute of Microbiology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences has developed an antiviral medicine for COVID-19, called JS016. The medication is now under phase-III clinical trials and has been used for emergency treatment both domestically and overseas
• A combination therapy of monoclonal antibodies BRII-196 and BRII-198 jointly developed by Tsinghua University, the Third People's Hospital of Shenzhen, and Brii Biosciences have shown promising results for non-hospitalized COVID-19 patients at high risk of clinical progression to severe disease