The World Health Organization cautioned world leaders on Wednesday that they will need to manage around the coronavirus for the foreseeable future. The agency warned that the virus is still dangerous and data shows that the epidemic can be easily "reignited."
"Make no mistake, we have a long way to go. This virus will be will be with us for a long time," Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated during the agency's coronavirus press conference on Wednesday. "People in countries with stay-at-home orders are understandably frustrated with being confined to their homes for weeks on end. People understandably want to get on with their lives. But the world will not and can not go bak to the way things were. There must be a new normal."
With new evidence finds that the coronavirus was spreading in the United States earlier than previously documented and health officials becoming concerned about a much harder wave in the winter, COVID-19 still needs more studying and more caution as leaders prepare to restart their economies moving forward.
Total Global Cases: Over 2.7 Million
Total Deaths: At Least 187,000
Total Recovered: At Least 767,000
New Guidance
A panel of experts formed by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases released guidelines on COVID-19 treatment. The experts stated that they had collected insufficient data to recommend either for or against the use of any antiviral drug or medication that affects the immune system in patients with COVID-19 at this time.
According a report from The New York Times, the panel also advised against several treatments unless that are given clinical trials, including the potential treatment combinations of hydroxychloroquine and the antibiotic azithromycin, or hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, stating that patients receiving these medications should be monitored for adverse effects, like abnormal heart rhythm.
New Trials
BioNTech
"We are pleased to have completed preclinical studies in Germany and will soon initiate this first-in-human trial ahead of our expectations," Ugar Sahin, an immunologist and BioNtech CEO stated. The vaccine clinical trials will begin with 200 healthy volunteers.
New Tracing
Billionaire Michael Bloomberg announced on Wednesday that he will help the state of New York develop and implement an aggressive program to test and trace the coronavirus. As part of his plan to restart New York's economy, Governor Andrew Cuomo said that the state needs to design a contact tracing system alongside widespread testing in order to effectively contain future outbreaks of COVID-19.
"Michael Bloomberg will design the program, design the training, he's going to make a financial contribution," Cuomo stated during his Wednesday coronavirus press conference. "He has tremendous insight both governmentally and from a private sector business perspective in this."
We're all eager to begin loosening restrictions on our daily lives and our economy. But in order to do that as safely as possible, we first have to put in place systems to identify people who may have been exposed to the virus and support them as they isolate," Bloomberg said in a statement.
