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The virus is still spreading rapidly around the world, with more than a million deaths and 37 million infections.
A healthcare worker takes a swab from a resident to be tested for the COVID-19 coronavirus as part of a mass testing program following a novel coronavirus outbreak in Qingdao, eastern Shandong province, on October 13, 2020. Image: AFP
PARIS – As Europe imposed new restrictions to try to stop a second rising wave of the coronavirus, hopes that vaccines would quickly bring relief took a hit Tuesday with the suspension of two clinical trials in the United States.
China, meanwhile, was quick to test an entire city of nine million just days after a minor coronavirus outbreak in the sprawling country, and Europe struggled to cope with a new wave of infections.
The virus is still spreading rapidly around the world, with more than a million deaths and 37 million infections. Many nations that suppressed their first outbreaks now face a second wave.
Hopes for a speedy launch of the vaccine were reversed when US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly said it had suspended the phase 3 trial of its antibody treatment for an unspecified incident, the second in less than 24 hours after Johnson & Johnson will face a similar problem.
In Europe, the Netherlands imposed a “partial lockdown” to curb one of the worst coronavirus waves in the region, with the closure of all bars, cafes and restaurants, and mandatory non-medical face coverings in all interior spaces for people over 13 years old.
In Britain, Labor opposition leader Keir Starmer called for a two- to three-week “blackout” lockdown to cut rates, saying the government had “lost control” of the outbreak by ignoring the strict measures suggested by scientific experts on September 21.
French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to announce stricter restrictions and faster tests in a prime-time television interview Wednesday night, with some outlets speculating that Paris and other cities could face late-night curfews. .
Meanwhile, China, where COVID-19 first appeared late last year, launched a campaign to test all Qingdao residents after a handful of cases were detected on Sunday.
More than four million samples have been collected and 1.9 million results have been delivered as of Tuesday afternoon, Qingdao authorities said, adding that no new cases were found beyond already confirmed infections.
Chinese officials intend to test the entire city, about 9.4 million people, by Thursday.
In scenes that contrast with clumsy testing efforts elsewhere, health workers in protective clothing quickly set up tents and residents lined up to provide samples.
As the rest of Europe struggled to contain the disease, Russia also reported its highest number of daily deaths from the virus, 244, and a record number of new cases at nearly 14,000.
Italy imposed new and stricter rules to control a resurgence, including the end of parties, amateur soccer games and late-night bar bites.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki became the latest high-profile figure to go into quarantine after coming into contact with an infected person.
And Portugal’s soccer federation said star forward Cristiano Ronaldo had tested positive for the virus.
‘Ethically problematic’
In opposition to the lockdowns and social distancing, some politicians have proposed letting the coronavirus circulate in the population to develop “herd immunity”, where much of the population has been infected there are not enough new victims that the virus.
But the World Health Organization has scrapped those plans as “ethically problematic” and requiring massive vaccines to work.
Additionally, a study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases indicated that exposure to the virus may not guarantee future immunity, and the second infection could have even more severe symptoms.
$ 12 billion for the developing world
Despite setbacks in vaccine testing, which health experts say is normal as testing ramps up enormously in its later stages, the World Bank approved $ 12 billion for developing countries to finance the purchase and distribution of vaccines, tests and treatment.
The financing “aims to support the vaccination of up to 1 billion people,” the bank said.
The announcement came as Oxfam warned of “COVID famines” in the wake of the pandemic and said the international community’s response to global food insecurity was “dangerously inadequate”.
For its part, the International Monetary Fund said that while the recession triggered by the pandemic was less severe than initially feared, global GDP will still contract 4.4%.
“The rise of this calamity is likely to be long, uneven and highly uncertain,” said IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath.
In the United States, President Donald Trump has returned to the electoral campaign three weeks before the November 3 elections, after being hospitalized with COVID-19. He held a new rally with supporters on the Pennsylvania state battlefield Tuesday night.
Critics have criticized Trump for his handling of the crisis, with more known infections and deaths in the United States than anywhere else in the world.
But Trump has been touting his own speedy recovery, after being treated with experimental therapies at the Walter Reed military hospital near Washington, DC, as a rallying cry to reopen the country.
“I went through it and now they say I’m immune … I feel so powerful,” Trump told a cheering crowd in Florida Monday, few of whom wore masks.
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