Manila back in partial lockdown

– Millions of people in the Philippines were ordered to stay home yesterday as global coronavirus infections kept soaring, with the World Health Organisation (WHO) warning against relying on a vaccine “silver bullet” to end the pandemic.

More than 18 million people worldwide have been infected since it emerged last year and it shows no sign of slowing down.

Brazil is driving a surge in Latin America and the Caribbean where infections have topped five million.

South America’s largest country has recorded 2.75 million cases, and close to half the region’s more than 202 000 deaths. Only the US has been worse affected.

Desperate to contain the spread and relieve pressure on overwhelmed hospitals, more than 27 million people on the main island of Luzon, including the capital Manila, went back into a partial lockdown yesterday after the number of recorded infections surged past 100 000.

The world’s hope of ending the current cycle of outbreaks and lockdowns rests on a vaccine.

Russia aimed to launch mass production of a vaccine next month and turn out “several million” doses a month by next year.

But Vitaly Zverev of Moscow’s Mechnikov Research Institute of Vaccines and Sera said it was “impossible to ensure a vaccine’s safety... You can make anything, but who is going to buy it?”

The WHO warned that people should focus on what is known to work: testing, contact tracing, distancing and wearing a mask. – AFP