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 No time to be complacent
Spikes in novel coronavirus infections in Asia have dispelled any
notion the region may be over the worst, with Australia reporting
its deadliest day on Thursday, Vietnam fretting over a new surge of
cases and India reporting more than 52,000 new cases over the
previous 24 hours.
Asian countries had largely prided themselves on rapidly containing
initial outbreaks after the virus emerged in central China late last
year, but flare-ups this month have shown the danger of complacency.
In isolated North Korea, which says it has had no domestic cases,
the Rodong Sinmun newspaper warned against carelessness. "A moment
of inattention could cause a fatal crisis," it said.
"So far, so good" on vaccine
Drugmaker AstraZeneca said on Thursday that positive data was coming
in on its vaccine for COVID-19, already in large-scale human trials
and widely seen as the front-runner in the race to produce a shot
against the novel coronavirus.
"The vaccine development is progressing well. We have had good data
so far. We need to show the efficacy in the clinical programme, but
so far, so good," Chief Executive Pascal Soriot said on a media
call.
AstraZeneca has already reached deals with countries to make more
than 2 billion doses of its COVID-19 vaccine, developed in
partnership with the University of Oxford, and says it could be
approved by the end of this year.
Isolate for longer
Anyone who tests positive or shows symptoms of COVID-19 in Britain
will have to self-isolate for 10 days instead of the previous seven,
based on a low but tangible possibility that people could remain
infectious for longer.
"In symptomatic people COVID-19 is most infectious just before, and
for the first few days after symptoms begin," the UK chief medical
officers said in a statement on Thursday.
"Evidence, although still limited, has strengthened and shows that
people with COVID-19 who are mildly ill and are recovering have a
low but real possibility of infectiousness between 7 and 9 days
after illness onset."
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A death a minute
One person in the United States died about every minute from COVID-19 on
Wednesday as 1,461 new deaths were recorded, the highest one-day increase since
1,484 on May 27, according to a Reuters tally. U.S. coronavirus deaths are
rising at their fastest rate in two months.
Spikes in infections in Arizona, California, Florida and Texas this month have
overwhelmed hospitals. The rise has forced states to make a U-turn on reopening
economies that were restricted by lockdowns in March and April to slow the
spread of the virus.
Many health experts say the outbreak could be brought under greater control if
guidelines to maintain social distancing and to wear masks in public were
enforced nationwide.
"Recession of a century"
The German economy contracted at its steepest rate on record in the second
quarter as consumer spending, company investment and exports all collapsed
during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, wiping out nearly 10 years of growth.
Gross domestic output in Europe's largest economy shrank by 10.1%
quarter-on-quarter from April to June after a revised 2.0% contraction in the
first three months of the year.
The plunge was worse than the 9% contraction predicted by economists in a
Reuters poll. Adjusted for inflation, seasonal and calendar effects, it erased
almost a decade of growth.
"Now it's official, it's the recession of a century," said DekaBank economist
Andreas Scheuerle.
(Compiled by Linda Noakes and Karishma Singh; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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