Covid-19 Live Updates: Vaccine Trial Is Halted After Patient’s Adverse Reaction

As drugmakers pledge to thoroughly vet a vaccine, one company pauses its trials for a safety review.

The pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca halted global trials of its coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday because of a serious and unexpected adverse reaction in a participant, the company said.

The trial’s halt, which was first reported by Stat News, will allow the British-Swedish company to conduct a safety review. How long the hold will last is unclear.

In a statement, the company described the halt as a “routine action which has to happen whenever there is a potentially unexplained illness in one of the trials, while it is investigated, ensuring we maintain the integrity of the trials.”

The news of AstraZeneca pausing its trial came the same day the company and eight other drugmakers made a joint pledge to “stand with science” on coronavirus vaccines, reaffirming that they would not move forward with such products before thoroughly vetting them for safety and efficacy.

President Trump has repeatedly claimed that a vaccine could be available before Election Day, Nov. 3, heightening fears that his administration is politicizing the race by scientists to develop a vaccine and potentially undermining public trust in any vaccine approved.

The companies did not rule out seeking an emergency authorization of their vaccines, but promised that any potential coronavirus vaccine would be decided based on “large, high quality clinical trials” and that the companies would follow guidance from regulatory agencies like the Food and Drug Administration.

Some said the halt of AstraZeneca’s trial was evidence that the process was working as it should.

“At this stage, we don’t know if the events that triggered the hold are related to vaccination,” said Dr. Luciana Borio, who oversaw public health preparedness for the National Security Council under Mr. Trump and who was acting chief scientist at the F.D.A. under former President Barack Obama. “But it is important for them to be thoroughly investigated.”

In large trials like the ones AstraZeneca is overseeing, the company said, participants do sometimes become sick by chance, but such illnesses “must be independently reviewed to check this carefully.”

The company said it was “working to expedite the review of the single event to minimize any potential impact on the trial timeline” and that it was “committed to the safety of our participants and the highest standards of conduct in our trials.”

A person familiar with the situation, and who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that the participant had been enrolled in a Phase 2/3 trial based in the United Kingdom. The individual also said that a volunteer in the U.K. trial had been found to have transverse myelitis, an inflammatory syndrome that affects the spinal cord and is often sparked by viral infections. However, the timing of this diagnosis, and whether it was directly linked to AstraZeneca’s vaccine, is unclear.

AstraZeneca declined to comment on the location of the participant and did not confirm the diagnosis of transverse myelitis. “The event is being investigated by an independent committee, and it is too early to conclude the specific diagnosis,” the company said.

AstraZeneca’s vaccine is currently in Phase 2/3 trials in England and India, and in Phase 3 trials in Brazil, South Africa and more than 60 sites in the United States. The company intended for its U.S. enrollment to reach 30,000.

AstraZeneca is one of three companies whose vaccines are in late-stage clinical trials in the United States.

Britain, seeing a spike in new coronavirus cases, will ban most gatherings of more than six people beginning next week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to announce Wednesday.

“We need to act now to stop the virus spreading,” Mr. Johnson said in a statement on Tuesday. “So we are simplifying and strengthening the rules on social contact — making them easier to understand and for the police to enforce.”

A surge in cases this week and confusion over the current rules prompted the measure, which is expected to take effect on Monday and include fines beginning at 100 pounds (about $130). The new rules will apply to both indoor and outdoor gatherings, including private homes and parks.

About 3,000 new cases were reported on both Sunday and Monday of this week, the highest daily figures in Britain since May. About 2,500 more new cases were reported on Tuesday and 32 deaths.

The spike in cases the country is seeing has not prompted a similar uptick in hospitalizations. As of Tuesday, there were 757 confirmed Covid-19 patients in hospitals in Britain of which 77 people are on ventilators, according to government data. Earlier in the pandemic, in April, those numbers hovered closer to 20,000 patients.

One explanation for the lag of hospitalizations could be that more people under 40 have been testing positive for the coronavirus, according to numbers from Public Health England.

Since April, the testing capacity in the country has gone up. Last Wednesday, there were more than 175,000 tests processed, the government reported. But Wednesday, Matt Hancock, the health secretary, told the BBC that only people with symptoms should get tested. “If you don’t have symptoms unless asked specifically to get a test,” he said, “you’re not eligible for a test.”

In an interview with Sky News on Wednesday, Mr. Hancock said that the new rules would not be implemented until Monday because people needed time to read them.

“Every single person in the country needs to know what they are so we can together keep a grip on the virus,” he said.

As of Wednesday, Britain had recorded at least 352,000 virus cases and 41,000 deaths, according to a New York Times database.

In other developments around the world:

• A fast-moving fire destroyed most of Europe’s largest refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, leaving its 12,000 residents homeless just days after they were collectively quarantined because of a coronavirus outbreak there.

• India’s Health Ministry said Tuesday that it planned to open classrooms for high school students on a voluntary basis, and only with their parents’ approval, starting Sept. 21. The vast majority of schoolchildren will continue to study online. The Taj Mahal will also open for tourism on Sept. 21, with access restricted to 5,000 people per day. India has recorded more than 4.3 million cases over all, with nearly 90,000 new infections reported on Tuesday.

• Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, said on Tuesday that it would take a four-week “pause” before it considers loosening restrictions or allowing further economic reopening. Christine Elliott, Ontario’s health minister, acknowledged that schools, which began reopening across the province on Tuesday, would most likely become vectors for the virus, and said that the province’s top priority was protecting them from transmission in the community. Ontario has reported at least 43,000 coronavirus cases, according to a New York Times database, including 852 in the past week.

• Virus infections are rising in the Netherlands, which reported 1,140 confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, the country’s health minister, Hugo de Jonge, said on Wednesday. “This is the highest number in months,” Mr. de Jonge said. Hospitalizations are also increasing, he said.

• China’s biggest air show will go ahead in November, the organizer said on Wednesday, backtracking on an earlier announcement that the event had been canceled because of the pandemic. The biennial International Aviation and Aerospace Exhibition comes amid a steep downturn in the industry.

• Germany extended a general travel warning to include all countries outside Europe through Sept. 30. But the foreign ministry said that starting in October, it would evaluate individual non-European destinations case by case, rather than issue another blanket warning. Germans may travel within the European Union and to other countries within Europe’s Schengen zone of passport-free travel, as well as to Britain, Andorra, Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican, without breaching the warning, which is advisory, not mandatory. For the many Germans who travel on package tours, the warning generally will allow them to cancel bookings without charge.

Quarantine breakdowns at colleges in the U.S. are leaving some at risk.

Across the United States, colleges that have reopened for in-person instruction are struggling to contain the spread of the virus among tens of thousands of students, with perhaps their most complex problem being what to do with students who test positive or come into contact with someone who has.

Many have set aside special dormitories, or are renting off-campus apartments or hotel rooms to provide isolation beds for infected students and separate quarantine units for the possibly sick.

But some undergraduates and epidemiologists say the policies have broken down, often in ways that may put students and college staff members at risk.

At the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and the University of Notre Dame, students have reported their classmates for violating quarantine and wandering outside. At Iowa State University, a student who was waiting for his virus test results said he was sent back to his regular dorm room where he could have infected his roommate.

And at many campuses, students with confirmed or possible infections have flooded social media platforms to describe filthy rooms, meager food rations, lack of furniture, chaotic procedures and minimal monitoring from their universities.

The policy breakdown reflects the chaotic nature of this extraordinary semester, when schools are struggling to deliver both in-person and remote classes; to identify, isolate and treat coronavirus outbreaks; and to maintain safe behavior among sometimes unruly undergraduates.

At the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, Brianna Hayes developed a fever after a week at school, went to campus health services and was immediately assigned to a quarantine dorm for students with virus risks. Two days later, the university informed Ms. Hayes, a first-year student, that she had tested positive and would need to move again, this time to a Covid-19 isolation dorm.

But there was no university staff in the dorm to help sick students, Ms. Hayes said, and during her week in isolation, she said, no one from the university came to check on her.

“I felt like everyone was only interested in how I was affecting others, like who I came in contact with, and then I was just left to be sick,” she said.

Amy Johnson, U.N.C.’s vice chancellor for student affairs, said the school worked hard “to facilitate an easy and comfortable transition for students,” and to keep “lines of communication open.” With more than 900 student virus cases over the last month, the university switched to online instruction in mid-August, but it has permitted some students with demonstrated needs to remain on campus.

When borders closed because of the pandemic, seafarers on ships around the world suddenly had no way home. For cargo ships around the world, the process known as crew change, in which seamen are replaced by new ones as their contracts expire, ground nearly to a halt.

Six months later, there’s no solution in sight.

In June, the United Nations called the situation a “growing humanitarian and safety crisis.”

Last month, the International Transport Workers’ Federation, a seafarers’ union, estimated that 300,000 of the 1.2 million crew members at sea were essentially stranded on their ships, working past the expiration of their original contracts and fighting isolation, uncertainty and fatigue.

Some crew members have begun refusing to work, forcing ships to stay in port. And many in the shipping industry fear that the stress and exhaustion will lead to accidents, perhaps disastrous ones.

“There’s nothing I can do,” Ralph Santillan, a merchant seaman from the Philippines, said late last month from his ship, a 965-foot bulk carrier off South Korea. “I have to leave to God whatever might happen here.”

France’s prime minister Jean Castex is self-isolating and will hold his meetings remotely after he came into contact on Saturday with the director of the Tour de France, who tested positive for the coronavirus.

Mr. Castex’s isolation comes as France is facing a resurgence of the virus with a daily average of 7,000 cases for the past seven days and an increase in the number of patients in intensive care after months of decline.

Mr. Castex tested negative on Tuesday, but he will isolate until being retested seven days after the contact took place. As a consequence, France’s weekly cabinet meeting will take place by videoconference on Wednesday for the first time since the end of the country’s two-month lockdown in May.

President Emmanuel Macron also underwent a test, which was negative, after visiting Lebanon and Iraq last week, and interior minister Gérald Darmanin will be tested after spending time with Mr. Castex on Tuesday.

“We do for us what we require all fellow citizens to do,” Mr. Macron told reporters on Tuesday.

Mr. Macron nevertheless acknowledged that the situation was “worrying” and called on French citizens to be “more vigilant” in their private lives in the face of the epidemic.

Mr. Macron said that new measures to fight the virus would be discussed at a health defense council on Friday.

In particular, the government will discuss the widespread introduction of antigenic tests that are considered simpler and faster, just as the country is facing increasing delays in test results, hampering its fight against the spread of the virus.

A pub patron in Ireland has become a symbol of the country’s ongoing debate over virus restrictions.

A pint of Guinness. A half eaten meal. And an alarm clock.

All are laid out on a table in front of an elderly man, the craggy lines of his face visible in profile as he gazes toward the window in a pub in Ireland, in a photo that has come to capture the nation’s wrestling with coronavirus regulations.

A pub owner, Fergus McGinn, posted the photo of the man enjoying a pint of Guinness with a timer set on the Facebook page of McGinn’s Hop House, a pub in the city of Galway, on Ireland’s west coast, where it has been viewed and shared tens of thousands of times.

While the image has come to symbolize different things for different people — some have used it to criticize the government’s continued restrictions on pubs, while others have applauded the man’s commitment to regulations on dining out — the man who took the photo said he hoped it highlighted the struggles of those isolated by the pandemic.

Mr. McGinn said he hoped the photo would make people aware of the role the local pub played for isolated members of the community. “Taking that away from people, that social outlet for that generation, it could be detrimental and savage on their mental health,” Mr. McGinn said. Offers to buy the man his next meal or pay for his pint have also poured in, but Mr. McGinn said he wanted “to pay his own way.”

Particularly in Ireland’s smaller communities, pubs serve as a place to connect socially, even for those who aren’t big drinkers, functioning as a meeting place and the center of some rural areas. But pubs that don’t serve food have been closed since the lockdown first began in March.

Pubs that do serve food have been allowed to open since the end of June, but under new restrictions that ensure that each customer has a “substantial meal” worth at least nine euros (about $10.60) if they also purchase alcohol, and requiring patrons to leave within one hour and 45 minutes — hence the timer.

While Mr. McGinn was cautious about naming the man in the photo, to preserve his privacy, he was later identified in local news reports as John Joe Quinn, and told The Irish Independent that he was surprised about his new fame. He also noted that he was using the timer to ensure he didn’t miss the evening news broadcast.

But he also said that he was less concerned about going out for a pint than he was about staying safe.

“Health is more important,” he told the news outlet. “I mean, if that spreads again, we’re all in trouble.”

Some offenders caught without a mask were required to lie down in a coffin. Others were ordered to sit in the back of a hearse.

As Indonesia’s coronavirus caseload surges past 200,000, some officials are finding creative ways to drive home the message that wearing a mask is necessary to prevent new infections.

In East Jakarta, the authorities punished several people with time in a coffin.

“The coffin is a symbol to remind people not to underestimate the coronavirus,” said Budhy Novian, head of East Jakarta’s public order agency. “It’s our effort to convey the message to the people: The Covid-19 number is high and it causes death.”

But officials halted the practice after critics pointed out that onlookers were violating social distancing rules by crowding around to gawk and take photos.

Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country, passed 200,000 reported cases on Tuesday. New cases have been averaging more than 3,000 a day for two weeks, according to a New York Times database, and the death toll of 8,230 is the highest in East Asia.

Indonesia has one of the lowest rates of testing in the world, and its positivity rate is nearly 14 percent, slightly higher than Sweden’s and well above the 5 percent that the World Health Organization has given as a rough benchmark for relaxing social distancing measures. (A rising positivity rate can point to an uncontrolled outbreak; it can also indicate that not enough testing is occurring.)

Some independent experts suspect that Indonesia’s actual number of cases is many times higher than 200,000.

In Jakarta, the capital, officials erected a coffin-themed monument last week to highlight the rising death toll and remind people to follow coronavirus protocols.

Flouting the requirement to wear a mask in public in Jakarta is punishable by a fine of up to $67 for repeat offenders, a substantial sum for many residents.

Reporting was contributed by Aurora Almendral, Mike Ives, Patrick Kingsley, Constant Méheut, Claire Moses, Richard C. Paddock, Christopher F. Schuetze, Natasha Singer, Karan Deep Singh, Megan Specia, Muktita Suhartono, Katie Thomas, Katherine J. Wu and Elaine Yu.