PARIS, June 21 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Here are some of the latest developments in the coronavirus crisis.
With some 2,500,091 cases including 192,158 deaths, Europe is the worst affected continent while Latin America now has the fastest growing outbreak.
Europe chalks up more than 2.5 million cases, making it the worst-affected continent. Almost half of those cases have been registered in Russia, Britain, Spain and Italy.
Russia has recorded most cases in Europe, with 576,952 and 8,002 deaths, followed by Britain, 301,815 cases, 42,461 deaths; Spain, 245,575 and 28,315, and Italy, 238,011 and 34,561 fatalities.
Globally, there have been 8,680,649 cases, including 459,976 deaths.
The pandemic has killed at least 459,976 people worldwide since it
surfaced in China late last year.
The United States has the most deaths with 119,131 followed by
Brazil with 48,954, Britain with 42,461, Italy with 34,561 and France
with 29,617.
Brazil reports a one-day record of nearly 55,000 infections, making it the second country to pass one million cases after the United States.
Peru’s central bank forecasts a 12.5-percent drop in the country’s
gross domestic product this year. Two million jobs have already been
lost since a lockdown began there on March 16.
Meanwhile, Swiss pharmaceuticals giant Novartis says it will halt a clinical
trial of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19, citing
problems in recruiting enough patients for the study of the
controversial drug.
In China, an inactivated COVID-19 vaccine candidate developed by the Institute of Medical Biology under the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences has entered phase-2 clinical trials in China, the Science and Technology Daily said.
The phase-2 trials, which further evaluate the immunogenicity and safety of the vaccine in humans, are conducted in the southwestern province of Yunnan.
So far, five COVID-19 vaccine candidates have been approved for clinical trials in China, accounting for 40 percent of the total vaccines in clinical trials worldwide, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology. — NNN-AGENCIES
