UK regulator says trial of HCQ for Covid can resume

LONDON:A global trial designed to find out whether the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) can prevent infection with Covid-19 will restart after getting approval from the UK medicines agency. The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency’s decision on the trial comes after the drug was found in another UK trial to have no benefit for patients already infected with Covid-19.

UK’S ‘LITTLE INDIA’ GOES INTO NEW LOCKDOWN

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Tuesday announced a £5 billion economic package to recover from what he called the “disaster” of the cornavirus pandemic, as the east Midlands town of Leicester with a large population of Indian origin went into the UK’s first local lockdown.

Harping on the mantra of “build, build, build”, Johnson drew comparisons with former US President Franklin Roosvelt’s “New Deal” that took the country out of depression in the 1930s.

England is due to ease lockdown restrictions on Saturday, but Leicester will be excluded due to a spike in infections, particularly among young people. The infections are particularly high in areas of pre-existing economic deprivation, such as Evington.

Johnson said, “Too many parts of this country have felt left behind, neglected, unloved, as though someone had taken a strategic decision that their fate did not matter as much as the metropolis.”

The economic package includes building new homes, schools, more funding for the National Health Service, tackling skills crisis and bridging gaps in connectivity, productivity and opportunity.