The Fight Against the Coronavirus IS Making Progress

The Fight Against the Coronavirus IS Making Progress

In what seems to look like a bad situation, there’s always a light at the end of the tunnel.

The fast-spreading pandemic, coronavirus (COVID-19) which was first detected in Wuhan, China, is still infecting tens of thousands of people with pneumonia-like symptoms from across the globe, but the pace of scientific progress is breathtaking.

China

First of all, life in China is beginning to return to normal after 80% of patients have recovered. For the first time since the outbreak, China’s health authority recorded only eight more cases of coronavirus in the country.

The Mission of China tweeted that “The last two temporary hospitals in Wuhan were shut down on Tuesday, marking the closure of all 16 temporary hospitals in the city”. 

China also sent a consignment of medical supplies to help Italy and Spain contain the coronavirus. Experts from the Red Cross Society of China got dispatched to Iran and Iraq and offered medical supplies such as nucleic acid test kits and masks to Japan.

Two billionaires, Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates are offering to help beat the pandemic

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and its affiliated CZI Biohub, announced that fund the purchase of two diagnostic machines capable of running tests for the coronavirus. This will quadruple the capacity of testing machines currently available in San Francisco.

The announcement via Mark Zuckerberg‘s Facebook reads:

We’re funding the acquisition of state-of-the-art FDA approved COVID-19 diagnostic machines that will significantly increase the Bay Area’s ability to test and diagnose new cases. We’re also bridging connections between clinical labs at Stanford and UCSF to help distribute the testing load throughout the area.

Likewise, Bill Gates, who is known for putting his money into public health causes, is funding a home-test kit. The statement reads:

We are joining forces with Wellcome and Mastercard to beef up our response—backed by $125 million in both new funding and money already earmarked to tackle this epidemic. The money will be used to identify potential treatments for COVID-19, accelerate their development, and prepare for the manufacture of millions of doses for use worldwide. The expertise of pharmaceutical companies will be critical to this endeavor, named the COVID-19 Therapeutics Accelerator.

• In other news, Data from Johns Hopkins University shows that more than 68,000 people have recovered from the virus while over 4,000 deaths have been recorded so far.

• A doctor, identified as Jordan Shlain, shared a few notes from the University of California, San Francisco BioHub Panel on COVID-19 that a drug called Remdesivir which is currently undergoing some tests against COVID-19, can be partially administered when a patient gets detected of the virus.

• In Canada, the first coronavirus vaccine made in Saskatchewan is officially in the testing stages although it is undergoing some procedures to make it suitable for human use.
  Volker Gerdts, CEO and Director of VIDO-InterVac, revealed that everything learned from the first SARS outbreak gave the researchers an idea of what the vaccine will have to look like, even though they are now a few weeks away from finishing research stages, he is positive the vaccine will work.