[News] International Covid-19 update: Initiative launched to speed up development of a vaccine

[FearLess]

The UN on Friday joined forces with world leaders and the private sector on an initiative to speed up development of Covid-19 vaccines and treatments, and ensure equal access for all.

"This is a landmark collaboration to accelerate the development, production and equitable distribution of vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics for Covid-19," World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual briefing.

"United we can fight this virus."

The event was co-hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and Melinda Gates of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

It included UN chief Antonio Guterres as a speaker, as well as global leaders like German Chancellor Angela Merkel and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Conspicuously absent were leaders from China, where the novel coronavirus first surfaced late last year, and from the United States -- the country currently hardest-hit by the pandemic, with nearly 50 000 dead and close to 900 000 infected.

US President Donald Trump earlier this month suspended funding to the organisation, accusing it of kowtowing to China over the coronavirus outbreak.

Worldwide, more than 190 000 people have died in the pandemic and more than 2.7 million have been infected, according to an AFP tally based on official sources.

US states open up despite huge death toll

Despite its death toll breaking 50 000, some state governors in the US began to reopen portions of their economies on Friday.

Health officials at Johns Hopkins University reported more than 3 300 new coronavirus deaths in the US in the last 24 hours, one of the deadliest days since the outbreak began. There have now been more than 890 000 cases in the US since the virus was first detected in the country.

New York remains the hardest-hit state, with more than 263 000 confirmed cases and nearly 16,000 deaths. Though New York is still a hot spot, new hospitalisation rates are coming down.

Strict social distancing measures and business closures in New York and elsewhere, while potentially curbing the spread of the virus, have exacted a toll on the US economy. At least 26 million people have sought unemployment benefits in the last five weeks, the most since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Governors in at least three states - Oklahoma, Alaska and Georgia - announced that they would begin lifting some of those restrictions on Friday, even as other states such as California, Massachusetts and Illinois see spikes in cases. 

Georgia received the most attention for its plans, being the first state to make them public. The state will allow certain businesses, including salons, gyms and bowling alleys to allow customers.

The reopened businesses will have to adhere to social distancing guidelines, Kemp said, but it remains unclear how this will work in beauty salons and tattoo parlours.

France orders malaria medicine... just in case

France's armed forces ministry on Friday said it had bought a consignment of the anti-malarial drug chloroquine from China as a precaution in case it becomes an approved medication for the coronavirus, an idea dismissed by many experts.

The ministry made the statement following a viral video on social media showing packages marked as chloroquine destined for the French army.

"Against the background of strong tensions in the provisioning of pharmaceutical materials, the armed forces ministry carried out a purchase as a precaution," it said, confirming that the purchase had been from China.

It said the purchased drug would be ready "if ever chloroquine is authorised by the health authorities as useful for fighting against Covid-19," it added.

There has been impassioned debate in France on the effectiveness of chloroquine in treating the coronavirus, a cause championed by Professor Didier Raoult, a prominent but controversial Marseille-based doctor.