It has been around 5 months since the official outbreak of Coronavirus. The United States of America is touching 1,716,078 total cases and the death toll has increased to 101,567 as of 31st May 2020. The sharp rise in the number of cases and deaths is surprising.
Among the other worst-hit nations are Russia, Spain, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, France, Turkey, and Iran. We noticed that the ranks have changed substantially, countries like the UK, Russia, and Brazil overtook China, Spain, Italy, etc in a matter of weeks.
India is the second-largest populated country having a population of 1.3 Billion people and has jumped ranks in May. India was in the top 40, now India is ranked 7th in the world in terms of infected people.
In India, there is a steep rise in the graph showing no signs of a dip. The death toll has touched 5500+ and the total of cases have touched 182,143 on 31st May 2020.
On the other hand, countries like Pakistan have decided to partially resume train services. Pakistan’s Supreme Court said that COVID 19 was “apparently not a pandemic in Pakistan” and incurring so much of an expense was not necessary. The court has also ordered shopping malls to be reopened if health authorities do not object, and curbs to be lifted on businesses opening on the weekends. There are a total of 1,483 deaths in Pakistan and the total number of cases has crossed 69,496.
For the past 2 months, there are over 100 attempts of vaccines being developed across the world now. Few human trials have been successful while some have even failed on animals. Some are prepared from scratch while some from existing molecules developed for other diseases.
The Print recently stated, “Oxford’s COVID vaccine, being tested on humans in the UK, fails to prevent infection in monkeys.” Oxford University stated in the preprint server that the vaccine has failed to prevent infection in animals, and it does not stop them from spreading the infection to others either. On the other hand, US-based drugmaker Pfizer’ has collaborated with a German company, ‘BNTECH’, and is producing a vaccine called ‘BNT162’. The first phase of human testing will be carried out on about 200 people aging between 18-55 years. If the testing turns out to be positive, another 160 people will be tested having higher risks.
Another article stated that- “First COVID-19 Vaccine Tested on Humans in the US Shows Promise”. Moderna Inc’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine has been able to stimulate an immune response against the virus and is safe. The firm’s chief medical officer- Tal Zaks said “If those trials go well, a vaccine could be available for widespread use by the end of this year or early 2021”. Moderna is among the many groups working to respond to this
continuing global health emergency. They have laid a roadmap beginning on 11th January 2020 and closing on 18th May 2020 announcing the positive interim Phase 1 data for mRNA-1273.
In terms of the testing kits and equipment, it is most important to follow the three T’s, Trace, Test and Treat.
The Prime Minister of India stated that when the Covid-19 crisis started, not even a single PPE kit was manufactured and only a few N95 masks were available but today India is producing two lakh PPE kits and two lakh fifty thousand N95 masks daily. This is not just in India but in many countries who have started focusing on the necessities and have evolved accordingly. Like Canada, this has directed all its alcohol distilleries to start manufacturing hand sanitizers.
