India's vaccine capacity will help ‘all humanity’ — Modi

UNITED NATIONS (AFP/Xinhua/ Bloomberg) — India as the world's biggest vaccine maker will use its resources "for all humanity" in the battle against coronavirus, Prime

Minister Narendra Modi told the United Nations on Saturday.

"As the largest vaccine producing country of the world... India's vaccine production and

delivery capacity will be used to help all humanity in fighting this crisis," Modi said in his address to the virtual UN General Assembly.

"India will also help all the countries in enhancing their cold chain and storage capacities for the delivery of the vaccines," he said.

India's COVID-19 tally is inching towards the 6-million mark, reaching 5,992,532 on Sunday, as the death toll reached 94,503, according to the latest data released by the federal health ministry.

On Friday, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison had insisted in his speech to the UN that any nation that develops a COVID-19 vaccine share it universally.

Morrison made the strongly worded appeal as the United States resists global efforts to collaborate on a vaccine.

"This is a global responsibility and it's a moral responsibility for a vaccine to be shared far and wide," Morrison had said.

Modi reiterated India's calls for reform of the United Nations and for the world's second-most populous country to be given more influence in the global body.

1,000 daily virus cases in NY state

New York state, the onetime epicenter of the US novel coronavirus epidemic, has seen case numbers rise to more than 1,000 a day, local officials said Saturday.

These high figures have not seen since June 5, according to statistics released by the office of Governor Andrew Cuomo.

"Of the 99,953 tests reported yesterday (Friday), 1,005 were positive," Cuomo tweeted.

"It's vital that New Yorkers continue to practice the basic behaviors that drive our ability to fight COVID-19 as we move into the fall and flu season," he added in a statement.

"We'll continue to closely monitor the data and keep New Yorkers updated so they can make educated decisions for themselves and their families."

Early COVID treatments could be ‘bridge’ to vaccine

Monoclonal antibodies that stop the coronavirus from spreading in the body are among promising strategies for averting severe illness from COVID19 before vaccines arrive, said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Antibody-based medications, other blood products from recovered patients and antivirals are being investigated as early treatments, Fauci said. The aim is to prevent patients from developing the serious lung damage for which Gilead Sciences, Inc.’s remdesivir and the anti-inflammatory drug dexamethasone are administered.

“We are focusing very heavily now on treatment of early infection and, or prevention of infection,” Fauci told the Journal of the American Medical Association in an interviewFriday. “And that’s the bridge to the vaccine.”

Immunization against SARS-CoV-2 could begin in the US in November or December, Fauci said, though it will probably take until at least the third quarter of 2021 for enough Americans to have been protected against the pandemic virus to significantly diminish its threat. Fauci said 100 million doses of vaccine may be produced by December, with all six companies supplying the US slated to have made 700 million doses by next April.

With no vaccines yet proven to prevent COVID-19, health authorities must continue to push for new treatments and measures to stop the coronavirus from spreading, said Robert “Chip” Schooley, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego, who is studying more potent versions of an existing antiviral.

“Optimally, we’d have an oral antiviral drug you can give to more people earlier in the course of the illness,” Schooley said. Vaccines might not be 100% effective, “which is better than nothing, but we’re still going to have to rely on drugs and behavioral modifications for a long time to come.”

Blockbuster studies published by the journal Science on Thursday showed about 14% of critical COVID19 patients have impaired levels of a substance called interferon that helps orchestrate the body’s defense against viral pathogens.