Full virus vaccine at least a year away says EU agency
Worldwide lockdown hardens as Spain sees another deadliest day with record of 849 deaths in a day
It will be at least another year before a vaccine against the new coronavirus will be ready for approval and available in sufficient quantities, the EU medicines agency said Tuesday.
As the number of declared coronavirus cases worldwide passed 800,000 on Tuesday, the race is on to develop a vaccine against COVID-19 which emerged from China late last year.
The European Medicines Agency said in a statement it “estimates that it might take at least one year before a vaccine against COVID-19 is ready for approval and available in sufficient quantities to enable widespread use”.
This was based on current available information and past experience with vaccine development timeframes, the Amsterdam-based agency said.
It added that two vaccines have already entered a first phase of a clinical trials that was carried out on healthy volunteers.
But in general “timelines for the development of medicinal products are difficult to predict”, the EMA said.
So far, no medicine has yet shown to be a treatment for the coronavirus, that has so far claimed some 40,000 lives. Tightened lockdowns across the planet saw nearly half of humanity told to stay at home in a bid to stem the spiralling coronavirus pandemic, as Spain recorded its deadliest day on Tuesday and the United States braced for the full impact of the disease.
The virus has claimed more than 40,000 lives worldwide in a health crisis that is rapidly reorganising political power, hammering the global economy and altering the daily existence of some 3.6 billion people.
Spain, whose outbreak is the world’s second deadliest after Italy, reported another national record with 849 deaths in one day, dampening hopes it could have passed the peak of the crisis that has debilitated the country for weeks.
In battered Italy, flags flew at half-mast during a minute of silence to honour the more than 11,500 people who have perished from the virus, and the medical staff still working through nightmarish conditions.
Although there are hopeful signs the spread of infections is slowing in both countries, hundreds are still dying every day, leading authorities to extend nationwide shutdowns despite their crushing economic impact.
A 12-year-old girl infected with COVID-19 died in Belgium, a rare case of a young person succumbing to the disease.
Elsewhere Poland toughened restrictions on movement while Russia expanded lockdowns across its territory as infections ticked up, including that of a doctor who runs Moscow’s main coronavirus hospital.
Though the doctor recently met with President Vladmir Putin, the Kremlin assured that the Russian leader’s health was fine.
While the rest of the world shuts down, the ground-zero Chinese city of Wuhan has started to reawaken in recent days, giving the bereaved the first time in months to bury their dead.
According to a new study from the Imperial College London, strict containment measures might have already saved up to 59,000 lives across 11 European countries.
Even so, health facilities are in overdrive, with distressed medical staff forced to make grim decisions about how to distribute limited protective gear and life-saving respirators.
The United States was preparing for its darkest days after known infections topped 164,000 -- the highest number in the world.
In scenes previously unimaginable in peacetime, a field hospital was set to open in New York’s Central Park after a medical ship with 1,000 beds docked outside the city.
Like France, the US is nearing the 3,305 death toll recorded in China, where the virus emerged late last year but has since come under control.
While companies and schools around the globe have shifted to teleworking and teaching over video platforms, huge swaths of the world’s workforce cannot perform their jobs online are now lacking pay in the face of a deeply uncertain future.
New York city food banks have seen a surge of newcomers who have lost their wages.
“It is my first time,” Lina Alba, who lost her job as a hotel maid two weeks ago, said from a food distribution centre in the city.