There may never be a Covid ‘silver bullet’, warns WHO
GENEVA/LONDON: The World Health Organization warned on Monday that there might never be a “silver bullet” for the new coronavirus, despite the rush to discover effective vaccines.
The WHO urged governments and citizens to focus on doing the known basics such as testing, contact tracing, maintaining physical distance and wearing a mask in order to suppress the pandemic.
“We all hope to have a number of effective vaccines that can help prevent people from infection,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press conference.
“However, there’s no silver bullet at the moment - and there might never be.”
Covid-19 has killed nearly 690,000 people and infected at least 18.1 million since the outbreak emerged in Wuhan in China last December.
WHO had sent an epidemiologist and an animal health specialist to Beijing on July 10 to lay the groundwork for a probe aimed at identifying how the virus entered the human species. Their scoping mission is now complete, said Tedros.
An international team led by WHO, which will include leading scientists and researchers from China and around the world, will start epidemiological studies in Wuhan to identify the source of infection of the early cases. Scientists believe the killer virus jumped from animals to humans, possibly from a market in Wuhan selling exotic animals for meat.
Meanwhile, an outbreak in China’s far northwestern region of Xinjiang is continuing to subside, with 28 new cases reported
Monday. The outbreak of 590 cases so far has been concentrated in the capital, Urumqi.
In the UK, a test to detect the virus in 90 minutes and a ‘fill and finish’ partnership with pharma major Wockhardt for vaccine delivery were unveiled on Monday.
Business secretary Alok Sharma announced the agreement with Wockhardt that follows similar previous partnerships to secure early access to millions of vaccine doses from AstraZeneca for the University of Oxford vaccine, BioNTech/ Pfizer alliance, Valneva and GSK/Sanofi.
A Norwegian cruise ship line halted all trips and apologised on Monday for procedural errors after an outbreak of coronavirus on one ship infected at least 5 passengers and 36 crew.
Health authorities fear the ship could have infected dozens of towns and villages along Norway’s western coast. Meanwhile, the commissariat for French Polynesia said that some 340 passengers and crew are confined on a cruise ship in Tahiti after one traveller tested positive for the virus, .
All those aboard the Paul Gauguin cruise ship are being tested, and will be kept in their cabins pending the results, it said in a statement.
Russia said on Monday it aims to launch mass production of a coronavirus vaccine next month and turn out “several million” doses per month by next year.
The country is pushing ahead with several vaccine prototypes and one prepared at the Gamaleya institute in Moscow has reached advanced stages of development.
As Melbourne asked non-essential businesses to close, Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced a 1,500 Australian dollar ($1,060) payment for workers in a hot spot state who must self-isolate for 14 days and don’t have paid sick leave.
In the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte reimposed a moderate lockdown in capital Manila and outlying provinces after medical groups appealed for the move as coronavirus infections surge alarmingly.