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7 maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 18 MARCH 2020 NEWS INTERNATIONAL Euro 2020 postponed for a year KARL AZZOPARDI ONE of the largest sporting events of the year, Euro 2020, has been postponed due to the ongoing situation of the novel coronavirus. The tournament was due to be held from the 12 June through to the 12 July. A new format for the tourna- ment was due to be adopted for this year's competition, with the competition being hosted across 12 European countries. Previous tournaments had been hosted by only one or two countries. Host countries for this year's competition included Ger- many, Holland, Scotland and Romania, with the final being played at the historic Wembley Stadium in London. News about the postpone- ment was tweeted by the Nor- wegian Football Association. "Uefa has decided that the Eu- ros should be postponed until 2021. It will be played from 11 June to 11 July next year." the tweet read. The postponement was an- ticipated due to the Covid-19 pandemic sweeping across Eu- rope and the world, with ma- jor footballing leagues and cup competitions halted till at least April. The postponement will also cause another headache for UEFA, with the women's Euro- pean Championship scheduled from the 7 July till the 1 August in England next year. No news has yet emerged re- garding the UEFA Champions League and Europa League competitions. KARL AZZOPARDI THE coronavirus pandemic has stopped the world in its tracks, with countries like Italy, Spain, Germany and Switzerland announcing major lockdowns, while re- stricting travel to their residents. As Malta gets to grips with its own cases of Covid-19, pathologists and scientists around the globe have initiated research that they hope would lead to a coronavi- rus vaccine. On Monday, United States health of- ficials announced that the first human trials for a vaccine against Covid-19 have been initiated. 45 healthy adults whose ages range from 18 to 55 will be enrolled within an open-label trial for six weeks, the US Na- tional Institutes of Health (NIH) said. Despite trials starting this week, candi- dates would still need to progress through various phases, in order for the vaccine to be proved successful. The vaccine is called mRNA-1273, and was developed by NIH scientists and collaborators at biotechnology company Moderna, which is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Officials have estimated at least 18 months, if everything goes to plan, before the vaccine can be made available. Australian researchers at the Peter Do- herty Institute for Infection and Immuni- ty have also said that they have taken an important step in understanding the virus. Researchers were able to map the im- mune response of one of the country's first Covid-19 patients. Scientists were able to discover that the human body's immune response similar when combating the coronavirus is sim- ilar to that when it contracts the flu. The finding is a step towards under- standing why some patients recover quickly, while others develop more seri- ous respiratory problems. "People can use our methods to under- stand the immune responses in larger COVID-19 cohorts, and also understand what's lacking in those who have fatal outcomes," Katherine Kedzierska, profes- sor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Melbourne said. As researchers monitored the Australi- an patient's immune response, they were able to accurately predict when she would recover. Australian health minister Greg Hunt described the development as "world-leading". "It's about fast-tracking a vaccine by identifying which candidates are most likely to be successful. It's also about fast-tracking potential therapies and treatments for patients who already have coronavirus," Hunt said. On whether the coronavirus is mutat- ing, researchers at Peking University's School of Life Sciences and the Institute Pasteur of Shanghai, discovered the virus has evolved into two major lineages – dubbed 'L' and 'S' types. The older 'S-type' appears to be mild- er and less infectious, while the 'L-type' which emerged later, spreads more quick- ly and accounts for 70% of cases. There are currently 100,009 people in- fected by Covid-19, with 6% (6,491) of those cases in serious or critical condi- tion. Since the outbreak in December, 80,848, have recovered from the coronavirus, while 7,499 have died. The country with the highest number of cases is China, with 80,881 infected indi- viduals, with Italy coming second, having 27,980 cases. Malta currently has 36 active cases. As world goes into lockdown, researchers scramble for vaccine US health officials said that the first human trials for a vaccine against Covid-19 have been initiated