Member Info for SloppyGuiseppe

Viruses are here for life, not just for Christmas.

Or you can stand in line and attempt to get one of these. No thanks. I know what I would rather do.

Coronavirus: Test turnaround times getting longer in England https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-54281071

It gives restaurants, bars, clubs, arenas, stadiums, work places, airports, train stations etc the opportunity to open up and know that all those in the vicinity are "covid free". If that isn't better than what we had yesterday then I will eat my covid breathalyser.

bye

locked and loaded

The NHS are using both Apple and Google for the contact tracing app.

Any guesses as to who/what the major player is going to be....?

Open Orphan plc (ORPH), a rapidly growing specialist CRO pharmaceutical services company which is the world leader in the testing of vaccines and antivirals using human challenge clinical trials notes the recent share price movement and press speculation regarding UK government-funded Coronavirus human challenge studies.

The Company confirms that it is in advanced negotiation with the UK Government and other partners for a Coronavirus challenge study in the UK. While negotiations continue, it is expected that in the event that a contract is agreed revenue will be in excess of £7 million, being the approximate anticipated revenue for a Coronavirus challenge study as indicated by the Company on 22 May 2020. However, there can be no certainty that these discussions will lead to a new contract until final negotiations are concluded. The Company will update the market in due course as appropriate.

Further to its announcements of 9 March 2020 and 22 May 2020 regarding the development by the Company of a Coronavirus challenge study model the Company remains in ongoing discussions with potential vaccine developers regarding Coronavirus challenge studies.

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/SKIN/unveiling-of-new-breath-test-dig-l-health-platform/14696693

Cerebral Micro-Structural Changes in COVID-19 Patients – An MRI-based 3-month Follow-up Study;

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(20)30228-5/fulltext

Findings
In this follow-up stage, neurological symptoms were presented in 55% COVID-19 patients. COVID-19 patients had statistically significantly higher bilateral gray matter volumes (GMV) in olfactory cortices, hippocampi, insulas, left Rolandic operculum, left Heschl's gyrus and right cingulate gyrus and a general decline of MD, AD, RD accompanied with an increase of FA in white matter, especially AD in the right CR, EC and SFF, and MD in SFF compared with non-COVID-19 volunteers (corrected p value <0.05). Global GMV, GMVs in left Rolandic operculum, right cingulate, bilateral hippocampi, left Heschl's gyrus, and Global MD of WM were found to correlate with memory loss (p value <0.05). GMVs in the right cingulate gyrus and left hippocampus were related to smell loss (p value <0.05). MD-GM score, global GMV, and GMV in right cingulate gyrus were correlated with LDH level (p value <0.05).

https://www.independent.co.uk/wires/us/us-cruises-vow-100-testing-plan-resuming-sailing-b516059.html

Major cruise lines say they will test all passengers and crew for COVID-19 prior to boarding as part of their plan for resuming sailing in the Americas.

The Cruise Lines International Association, a trade group that represents 95% of global ocean-going cruise capacity, said Monday that its members will also require passengers and crew to wear masks while onboard whenever physical distancing can’t be maintained.

No date has been set for the resumption of cruising in the Americas. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a no-sail order for U.S. waters through Sept. 30. The association’s safety plan will now go to the CDC, which will consider it as the agency decides whether to lift the no-sail order. The order has been extended twice since March.

The cruise association has issued a voluntary suspension of cruises through Oct. 31. In a conference call Monday, Arnold Donald, the president and CEO of Carnival Corp., said once the CDC lifts its order, it will probably take cruise lines at least a month to prepare their ships and train crew before they can sail.

The safety plan requires testing of passengers and crew, but doesn’t specify the types of coronavirus tests that companies must use, CLIA Chairman Adam Goldstein said. It also doesn’t make clear that test results must be known before the ship sails.

The plan permits limited shore excursions and requires passengers to wear masks and stay apart from other people during those excursions. Passengers who don’t comply won’t be allowed to reboard.

The plan also requires ships to increase the amount of fresh air in their ventilation systems and use advanced filtration methods where feasible.

Cruise company executives said the limited resumption of cruising in Europe over the last few weeks has convinced them that cruising can be done safely.

The safety agreement is an unusual one in the fiercely competitive industry, which has been seriously shaken by the coronavirus. Hundreds of people fell ill aboard crowded cruises earlier this year before the no-sail order went into effect. Since then, the industry has furloughed thousands of workers.

“We all share the same goal, and we’re going to get there through collaboration, not competition,” said Richard Fain, Royal Caribbean Cruise’s chairman and CEO.

Good job the boss knows what he is doing then, aye.

"Brandon has completely transformed Integumen since taking over in August 2018. When he took charge, LabSkin, originally a Leeds University spinout, had had £15m of investment pumped into it over the years but only made £50,000 in sales for the first eight months of that year.

“It was in the worst possible state because nobody else wanted it and nobody could turn it around. I said ‘I’ll give it a shot, I think I can do it, and we set out to fix it,’ he says.

Brandon, a business turnaround specialist, realised the company was underselling itself by selling its test kits for just £1,500. He set about changing the business model and in the last four months of the year achieved sales of £280,000. This year turnover is expected to be £4m.

He has a five-year plan to grow Integumen before selling it on. His previous public company, Alltracel Pharmaceuticals, sold for $55m in 2008. He expects to make substantially more from Integumen."

https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/ORPH/new-contract-win/14693515

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/business/life-sciences-chief-who-has-become-covid-water-detective-2976660

The life sciences chief who has become a Covid water detective.
Integumen chief executive Gerry Brandon is using his skincare testing firm’s artificial intelligence technology to detect the coronavirus in waste water, writes Lizzie Murphy...

long article;

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-09-20-a-bold-step-forward-for-sas-energy-sector/

South Africa’s energy sector took a bold step forward with the release of two papers in late 2019: the updated Integrated Resource Plan (IRP 2019); and the Roadmap for Eskom in a Reformed Electricity Supply Industry (Roadmap for Eskom).

These publications tacitly open up the sector to purchasing electricity generated from multiple energy sources. The proposals are pragmatic and will be supported by the unbundling of Eskom into smaller, more accountable and efficient operating units.

The private market sector eagerly awaits the implementation of these plans, which has been agonisingly slow over the past 12 months.

More clarity is needed on how Eskom’s roughly R450 billion debt burden will be managed on a sustainable basis that limits risks to the fiscus. That said, the difference being made under the leadership of Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter, to craft a more holistic and coherent long-term response to the Eskom crisis, is encouraging. This new approach is no panacea for the years of mismanagement and operational regression in the country’s power utility, but it does indicate a welcome re-orientation to addressing Eskom’s challenges, even if much work still remains to be done. ..

long article;

https://elemental.medium.com/the-most-likely-way-youll-get-infected-with-covid-19-30430384e5a5

This story is part of “Six Months In,” a special weeklong Elemental series reflecting on where we’ve been, what we’ve learned, and what the future holds for the Covid-19 pandemic....

The quicker we bring ours to market the better;

https://www.rte.ie/news/uk/2020/0917/1165881-uk-covid-testing/

Senior UK health officials contacted their Irish counterparts this week seeking help with Covid-19 tests.

The UK is facing problems with their government's Covid-19 test and trace programme, with people being forced to travel hundreds of miles to get a test...

Pal, no offence taken ;)

These seven economic development criteria had to be met before the IPP Office would allow a project to be evaluated based on the tariff bid. Projects would also not proceed to a comparative evaluation in the absence of land and environmental permits and if the financial and technical qualification criteria were not met.

Black ownership of 33% had been recorded over the previous bid windows, during which 6 422 MW of renewables capacity had been procured from 112 IPPs, which had collectively invested more than R207-billion. Nevertheless, there was a strong view that the ownership figure overstated the participation of black South Africans in the projects, as the equity was typically encumbered.

Magoro said the IPP Office and government were keen to ensure that the level of black participation was increased in future, not only in project ownership, but also across the value chain, from the provision of professional and technical services, to manufacturing, construction and operations and maintenance.

Black Energy Professionals Association chairperson Meta Mhlarhi argued that the REIPPPP RFP needed to be “reimagined” to support far greater participation by black South Africans in the scheme.

To bolster the role of black developers and equity owners, Mhlarhi said that government should consider a separate bidding round for black-owned local equity participants and black developers in which certain bidding requirements could be eased to support project success.

She said that more creativity was also required to ensure that land was released for black developers.

https://www.miningweekly.com/article/ipp-office-says-next-renewables-bid-window-by-end-jan-latest-but-possibly-before-year-end-2020-09-17/rep_id:3650

The head of South Africa’s Independent Power Producer (IPP) Office, which performs the IPP procurement function on behalf of the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE), says discussions are under way with the department to finalise the roll-out plan for the Section 34 determination that caters for the procurement of 11 813 MW of new generation capacity.

Speaking during a webinar on Thursday, IPP Office CEO Tshifhiwa Bernard Magoro said that the fifth bid window, known as BW5, of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) would be launched by the end of January 2021 at the latest, but that the request for proposals (RFP) could be released before the end of 2020.

Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe confirmed earlier this month that the National Energy Regulator of South Africa had concurred with the determination, which provides for the procurement of 4 800 MW of onshore wind, 2 000 MW of solar photovoltaic, 3 000 MW of gas or diesel to power, 1 500 MW of new coal and 513 MW of energy storage.

The DMRE has also confirmed that it is aiming to finalise documentation for the procurement programmes, including BW5, before the end of the year.

Magoro told participants to the webinar, co-hosted by the South African Photovoltaic Industry Association and the South African Wind Energy Association, that, once Gazetted, the determination would set in motion a series of procurement schemes that would be implemented over the coming five to eight years.

It typically took three months, he said, from the publication of a determination, for the IPP Office to prepare the bid documentation to be released in the form of an RFP.

He indicated that deliberations with the DMRE and the National Treasury ahead of the finalisation of the RFP would home in on the themes of increasing black participation in the full REIPPPP value chain, including ownership, as well as how to raise the level of local content and stimulate industrialisation around the roll-out of the projects.

There were also ongoing deliberations on which entity would act as the buyer of the power arising from BW5, with Eskom having traditionally played the role of single buyer of all IPP power, which is currently paid for through the Eskom tariff in a way that is cost neutral to the utility.

Magoro said it was premature to indicate what changes could be made in the evaluation criteria relative to BW4.

The REIPPPP has hitherto been evaluated using a 70% to 30% split respectively between the tariff bid and non-price components, such as South African and black ownership, job creation, local content, management control, enterprise and supplier development, skills development and socioeconomic development.