FAQ on coronavirus disease (COVID-19)

Fake News: How To Spot Misinformation During The Coronavirus Crisis

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SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations in primary municipal sewage sludge as a leading indicator of COVID-19 outbreak dynamics: We report a time course of SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations in primary sewage sludge during the Spring COVID-19 outbreak in a northeastern U.S. metropolitan area. SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected in all environmental samples and, when adjusted for the time lag, the virus RNA concentrations were highly correlated with the COVID-19 epidemiological curve (R2=0.99) and local hospital admissions (R2=0.99). SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations were a seven-day leading indicator ahead of compiled COVID-19 testing data and led local hospital admissions data by three days. Decisions to implement or relax public health measures and restrictions require timely information on outbreak dynamics in a community.

NHS app paves the way for 'immunity passports': Facial recognition has been added as a way of logging in to an NHS app that lets people order prescriptions, book appointments and find healthcare data.
Initially, it will allow faster access to the services on the app, which is separate from the contact-tracing one.
But its developers say it could also be used for Covid-19 "immunity passports".

India’s contact-tracing app is going open-source: The app has amassed over 114 million users in less than two months — an unprecedented scale globally. The source code of Aarogya Setu’s Android app will be published on GitHub at midnight Tuesday (local time), and code of iOS and KaiOS apps would be released in a “few weeks.” Nearly 98% of the app’s users are on the Android platform.

CDC: Coronavirus antibody tests may be wrong 50% of the time: “Serologic test results should not be used to make decisions about grouping persons residing in or being admitted to congregate settings, such as schools, dormitories, or correctional facilities,” the CDC says.