The coronavirus pandemic seems to not be affected by any seasonal weather condition like the common cold or other influenzas, with the global daily new cases total continuing to reach records, its latest on Thursday. Adding to the sobering characteristics of the disease, The World Health Organization's Head of Emergencies Dr. Mike Ryan does not believe any country will be able to eradicate the coronavirus, noting that even countries who in the past who seemed to bring the virus under control are now struggling with second or third wave outbreaks.
"In our currency situation, it is unlikely that we can eradicate or eliminate the virus," Ryan stated during the agency's press conference in Geneva. "We've seen countries that have managed to get it to zero or almost zero re-import virus from outside, so there's always risk."
Ryan highlighted on the importance of tracing the virus's spread and cautioned that some nations may need to reinstate some lockdown measures as small clusters can quickly become large outbreaks in an alarmingly short amount of time.
"We need to remain vigilant with our physical distancing, with our hygiene, with mask wearing in appropriate settings. In that situation, we can potentially avoid the worst of having second peaks and of having to move backwards in terms of lockdown."
In the United States, Friday has seen the biggest peak yet for daily new infections at about 67,000 cases across the country. Cases and hospitalizations across the southern half of the country continue to reach numbers not yet seen in these areas since the beginning of the pandemic, with many fearing that the worst is yet to come.
Texas reported its highest number of new hospitalizations on Friday, totaling a record 10,000 across the second most populous state. California, with the highest population in the country, also reached a new record of patients admitted to the hospital with severe infections, totaling near 7,900. California, South Carolina, and Texas have also increased their average number of daily deaths, with more than 4,000 Americans succumbing to COVID-19 infection in the last week.
Total Cases: Over 12.6 Million
Total Deaths: Over 562,000
Total Recovered: 7.32 Million
Treatment Developments
Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ: GILD) released new data from a recent study on Friday that showed that its antiviral drug remdesivir reduces the risk of death for a severely ill COVID-19 patient to a significant extent when compared to a patient receiving standard care alone. The company found that "remdesivir was associated with an improvement in clinical recovery and a 62% reduction in the risk of mortality compared with standard of care."
The company reached this conclusion from analyzing data from over 300 COVID-19 patients enrolled in its phase three evaluation of the drug for the treatment of COVID-19, comparing their outcomes with over 8,000 patients who only received standard treatments in hospital settings during the same time period.
The results of a research showed that 7.6% of patients treated with the drug died from their infection, compared to 12.5% of patients who did not receive the experimental treatment. In addition, 74.4% of those who received remdesivir recovered within two weeks, compared to only 59% of patients receiving just standard care.
"We are working to broaden our understanding of the full utility of remdesivir," Gilead Chief Medical Officer Dr. Merdad Parsey said in a statement. "To address the urgency of the continuing pandemic, we are sharing data with the research community as quickly as possible with the goal of providing transparent and timely updates on new developments with remdesivir."