On his first day back to the virus briefing, the US President again blames China for the pandemic; assures that a vaccine will be coming a lot sooner than expected
Donald Trump
President Donald Trump warned on Tuesday that the "nasty horrible'" coronavirus will get worse in the US before it gets better, but he also tried to paint a rosy picture of efforts with governors to conquer the disease that has claimed ovet 1,40,000 American lives in just five months.
His daily news conferences ended soon after he suggested in April that the virus might be treated by injecting disinfectant into people, for which he was scorned by doctors, scientists and political rivals. On his return, Trump kept the stage to himself without the public health experts who were staples of his previous events but kept close to scripted remarks prepared by aides.
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"It will probably unfortunately get worse before it gets better," Trump said. But he also touted a reduction in deaths and progress on vaccines and treatments for COVID-19, which he referred to repeatedly as a the "China virus."
"The vaccines are coming, and they're coming a lot sooner than anybody thought possible," Trump promised anew. However, the health authorities warn there's no guarantee — it's not unusual for vaccines to fail during this critical testing step.
He also declared support for masks as a way to fight the pandemic, and admonished young people against crowding bars and spreading the disease. It all marked a delayed recognition by Trump that the economic reopening he's been championing since April — and more importantly, his re-election — were imperilled by spiking cases nationwide. "Whether you like the mask or not, they have an impact," he said. "I'm getting used to the mask."
Thailand to let in migrant workers
Faced with labour shortage in construction and agriculture, Thailand has agreed to let in about 1.2 lakh migrant workers from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos in the next phase of easing COVID-19 curbs. Further easing of curbs, including foreigners visiting for medical and business purposes, is expected August 1. Thailand has so far recorded 3,261 COVID-19 cases and 58 deaths.
S Africa has over half of continent's cases
South Africa has well over half of the confirmed coronavirus cases on the African continent as the country is now a global hot spot. New Health Ministry data show 381,798 cases including 5,368 deaths. The country's current epicenter is Gauteng province, home to Johannesburg and one-quarter of the population. It has over one-third of South Africa's cases.
'HCQ has no notable effect'
Berlin: Chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), either alone or in combination with the antibiotic azithromycin, do not show any notable antiviral effect against novel coronavirus infections in macaques or human lung cells, according to two new studies in the journal Nature. In one of the studies, scientists in France assessed the effects of HCQ treatment in cynomolgus macaques, a non-human primate model of SARS-CoV-2 infection in humans. They found that HCQ showed no substantial antiviral activity. In the other study in Germany, scientists found that chloroquine has no antiviral activity against SARS-CoV-2 in human lung cells.
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