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COVID-19 Scientific and Public Health Policy Update (17 November 2020)

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A. Executive summary * A sero-prevalence study of anti–SARS-CoV-2 IgG among blood donors in Kenya in April-June 2020. Findings report crude seroprevalence as 5.6% (174/3,098). Populationweighted, test-performance-adjusted national seroprevalence was 4.3% and was highest in urban counties, Mombasa (8.0%), Nairobi (7.3%) and Kisumu (5.5%). * A study highlights that many patients who recovered from COVID-19 may be still positive (albeit at lower levels) for SARS-CoV-2 RNA, but only a minority of the patients may carry a replicating SARS-CoV-2 in the respiratory tract. Results indicate that 18.2% of patients with COVID-19 became RT-PCR positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA after clinical recovery and previous negative results. * The US Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) for the investigational monoclonal antibody therapy bamlanivimab for the treatment of mildto-moderate COVID-19 in adult and pediatric patients. * Aspen Pharmacare, announced a preliminary agreement with Johnson & Johnson, for the technical transfer and commercial manufacture of their COVID-19 vaccine candidate, Ad26.COV2-S, if it is approved in South Africa and internationally. * Two mRNA-based vaccine candidates, Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, report a vaccine efficacy of more than 90%.

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