Here are the latest updates of the COVID-19 outbreak as of Sunday, April 12, 2020.
The total number of confirmed coronavirus cases across the world is 1,852,652, with the United States topping the list both in the number of confirmed cases and the number of fatalities. The U.S. has recorded 560,425 confirmed cases and 22,105 deaths as of this writing.
China, from where this outbreak began, has 82,052 confirmed cases and a death toll of 3,339 as per the latest update.
The number of people who have recovered from coronavirus globally is 423,311. This number is the highest in China, i.e., 77,575, while in the U.S., it is 32,634.
As the virus SARS-CoV-2 keeps spreading across territories, inflicting more damage, scientists and pharma companies are racing against time to find a treatment/vaccine for this dreaded pathogen.
The latest to join the bandwagon is privately-held OncoImmune Inc., which has received a "study-may-proceed" letter from the FDA for its Phase III clinical trial testing the safety and efficacy of CD24Fc for the treatment of hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
There can be no two opinions on the fact that social distancing measures such as lockdown and self-isolation, which have been implemented to contain the spread of the virus, are working well. However, the lockdown cannot be in place endlessly.
According to a study, published in the Lancet, "proactively striking a balance between resuming economic activities and keeping the reproductive number of COVID-19 below 1 is likely to be the optimal strategy until effective vaccines become widely available". (*The reproductive number is the number of secondary infections generated from one infected individual, and is understood to be between 2 and 2.5 for COVID-19 virus, higher than for influenza. (Source: WHO).))
According to Sarah Gilbert, professor of vaccinology at Oxford University, a vaccine against the novel coronavirus could be available by September of this year, reports The Times. Sarah Gilbert leads a team of researchers who are working on a vaccine for COVID-19.
Meanwhile, as the number of coronavirus cases in every country continues to increase with each passing day, one may be tempted to ask if there is any region in the world that has been left untouched by this villain.
North Korea, Turkmenistan, two African countries namely, Lesotho and Comoros, and Pacific island nations like the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu are the regions that have not recorded any coronavirus case, reports Statista, an online portal for statistics.
Another piece of good news is that the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was admitted to the intensive care unit at St. Thomas' Hospital in London, on April 8, after his coronavirus symptoms worsened, was discharged from the hospital on Easter Sunday.
In the UK, the total number of confirmed cases is 84,279. The number of fatalities is 10,612 while the number of recovered cases is 344. (Source: Worldometer)
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