Covid-19 Latest Figures (9th Mar)
By 9th March, China’s daily number of new recovered cases have exceeded new confirmed cases on daily basis in the past 20 days and it is still running, even Hubei Province where is the epicentre of the outbreak, only has 36 new reported cases on 8th Mar and 41 cases on 7th Mar! This is a great news of the time for China and all positive statistics have shown that the development of Covid-19 is well under control and plateaued now. However, the virus has been going viral globally.
Italy is the worst hit country outside China with over 7,400 confirmed cases and 366 associated deaths.[1] Italy has suspended or cancelled all direct flights from and to China on 31st Jan when there were only two reported cases, however it is believed that due to the loose border control with most European countries as a signatory of the Schengen Agreement, the possibility of the virus contamination may come from everywhere within Schengen area countries.[2]
South Korea has confirmed 7,382 cases and 51 death reports as of Sunday night. Compared to MERS outbreak in 2015 over there, local government did take a preemptive approach in the first place which is even before the virus was identified in China on 3rd Jan, however, it was downplayed until recent scale-up outbreak in South Korea and it gets more attention now.[3]
Iran has reported 6,566 cases and 194 fatalities. It is said the original source of the virus outbreak could come from Qom where is a famous tourist city and a religious worship shrine where could gather thousands of people from Middle of East in particular. China has sent a team of experts to Iran and Iraq to mitigate the development of the virus outbreak, along with medical supplies.
Bruce Aylward, International Team Lead for the WHO-China joint mission on Covid-19, urged other countries, especially Italy, South Korea and Iran to take away what China has done so for to control the disease. "You have to find the cases quickly, and you have to get them isolated, and their close contacts quarantined, to be able to break this disease," he told China Daily. "That was the first big message－speed, speed, speed."[4]
Gilead Sciences is committed to research on their current drug Remdesivir for SARS-CoV-2, which is the drug candidate for SARS, MERS and Ebola. Two phase III studies were initiated for the treatment in the US in late Feb, and Clinical Trial in China is now approved to test its drug efficacy on human beings too![5][6][7]
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[1] https://www.cgtn.com/special/Battling-the-novel-coronavirus-What-we-know-so-far-.html
[2] https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-03-03/COVID-19-Why-is-Italy-the-most-affected-country-outside-Asia--OyjW6hdZ9S/index.html
[3] https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-03-08/Graphics-How-is-South-Korea-responding-to-COVID-19-after-MERS--OHdOVjqGFG/index.html
[4] https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202003/09/WS5e65454aa31012821727d424.html
[5] https://www.gilead.com/news-and-press/company-statements/gilead-sciences-statement-on-the-company-ongoing-response-to-the-2019-new-coronavirus
[6] https://www.gilead.com/news-and-press/press-room/press-releases/2020/2/gilead-sciences-initiates-two-phase-3-studies-of-investigational-antiviral-remdesivir-for-the-treatment-of-covid-19
[7] https://www.gilead.com/purpose/advancing-global-health/covid-19