uk 'New variant' of coronavirus identified in England He said the World Health Organization had been notified and UK scientists were doing detailed studies. He said there was "nothing to suggest" it caused worse disease or that vaccines would no longer work. (Maybe it would be good to announce the conclusion AFTER the investigation, not before) sask Sask. restricting most private gatherings to household members only starting Thursday More restrictions also to be implemented from Dec. 17 through Dec. 25 Most Saskatchewan residents will only be allowed to mingle indoors with people they live with starting Thursday, the province announced via a news release. As COVID-19 cases continue rising across Saskatchewan, the provincial government is implementing further public health restrictions throughout the next couple of weeks. "We know that much of the community transmission continues to occur in our household settings. As a result, this needs to be a different kind of Christmas," Premier Scott Moe said during a news conference Monday afternoon. "It's a little bit of Buckley's. It doesn't taste very good, but it is necessary to preserve the capacity we have in our health-care system. It's absolutely necessary for us to preserve the economic activity... but also the opportunity for us to recover." Starting 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 17, private indoor gatherings will be limited to household members only.

fungus Indian hospital warns of rare & potentially DEADLY FUNGUS in some recovered Covid-19 patients Doctors at New Delhi’s Sir Ganga Ram Hospital have reported that more than a dozen recovered Covid-19 patients have been afflicted with a serious fungal infection that has already claimed five lives. The mucormycosis fungus, which usually takes 15-30 days to spread, was registered growing in former coronavirus patients within just 2-3 days, the doctors warned. The fungus can lead to various gruesome outcomes, depending on where it might spread in the body. In some cases, the infection could necessitate the removal of the nose and jawbone and can also cause permanent loss of eyesight. The mortality rate for patients in which the fungus spreads to the brain is a startling 50 percent. Over the last two weeks, surgeons at Ganga Ram had to perform operations on 10 patients to remove infected tissue. Half the patients lost their eyesight while five of them died. Dr. Manish Munjal, Ganga Ram’s Senior ENT surgeon, explained to India’s ANI news agency that the mucormycosis fungus afflicts patients whose immune systems have been very weakened by the novel coronavirus. The fungus seems to enter the host’s body by exploiting the immune system’s Cytokine responses, provoked by large doses of steroids commonly given to Covid-19 patients.