The World Health Organization needs more than $30 billion over the next year to develop and produce COVID-19 tests, vaccines and other treatments, the organization said Friday.
A WHO-led coalition focused on containing the spread of the coronavirus hopes to use the funds to speed up efforts to assist low- and middle-income (LMIC’s) countries by the middle of next year.
The WHO said in a statement Friday that plans by the coalition’s ACT-Accelerator initiative include “the accelerated development, equitable allocation, and scaled up delivery of 500 million tests to LMIC’s by mid-2021, 245 million courses of treatments to LMICs by mid-2021, and 2 billion vaccine doses, of which 1 billion will be purchased for LMICs, by the end of 2021.”
The global health organization said $3.4 billion has already been contributed to the initiative, but it is facing a nearly $28 billion shortfall and that $13.7 billion is “urgently needed.”
Hugo, 3, has his temperature taken by a teacher as he arrives at Cobi kindergarten in Barcelona, Spain, June 26, 2020.
India reported it has close to half million confirmed coronavirus cases on Friday after reporting 17,296 new infections, its biggest 24-hour increase. The spike has prompted a delay in the resumption of regular train services. The services were set to resume on June 30, but Indian Railways, the country’s railway system, said Thursday it would not fully resume services until Aug. 12.
A coronavirus state of emergency in Thailand that critics maintain has been used to suppress political dissent may be extended next week. The cabinet is scheduled to decide on whether to extend it on Tuesday. The state of emergency empowers the government to censor the media, disperse gatherings and implement curfews.
In the U.S., a single-day record for new infections was set for a second straight day Thursday. U.S. states reported 39,327 new cases, according to the Washington Post, the highest one-day total since the outbreak began in December.
Healthcare workers put a vial containing a test swab into a bag after testing a driver at a drive-through coronavirus testing site outside of Hard Rock Stadium, June 26, 2020, in Miami Gardens, Fla.
New cases have skyrocketed in Southern and Western states, including Alabama, Alaska, Montana and Utah, all of which reported record high single-day totals. The Western state of California said Thursday cases topped 200,000, even after imposing lockdown measures in the early days of the pandemic.
The sharp rise in infections has prompted the governors of Arizona, Florida and Texas to delay reopening plans.
The U.S. continues to lead the world in coronavirus cases, with more than 2.4 million, about one-fourth of all infections worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center. The U.S. is also the world leader in COVID-19 deaths, with over 124,400.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Thursday 20 million people, 6% of the population, may have contracted the coronavirus, 10 times greater than has been reported. The estimate lends credence to health officials who have long believed the actual number of cases has been underreported.
The CDC said the estimate is based on blood samples taken from across the country and that many cases were not identified because early testing was limited or carried out only on those people who showed symptoms.
Late Thursday, as the coronavirus cases in the U.S. climbed to record highs, the White House filed a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking to invalidate the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the healthcare insurance also known as Obamacare.
Since the U.S. lockdowns started, tens of millions of people have lost their jobs and their health insurance. The ACA is aimed at helping citizens, including jobless people, purchase health insurance at a reasonable rate. The Supreme Court justices will hear oral arguments in October.
Dr. Richard Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health on May 14, 2019, in Washington.
Meanwhile, Dr. Rick Bright, a top U.S. government medical researcher, has charged the Trump administration of advancing what he called a “coordinated effort” to punish him for exposing what he said is a bungled response to the coronavirus.
Bright filed a new complaint with the federal watchdog agency to which government whistleblowers can turn. Bright, the former head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, said in his complaint he had been downgraded to a much lesser role in the National Institutes of Health that cut him off from work related to the coronavirus.
Amid the rise of cases in America, the top U.S. infectious disease expert said on CNN Friday the White House Coronavirus Task Force is considering testing groups of people at one time.
The proposal, which Dr. Anthony Fauci first mentioned to the Washington Post, is under consideration after President Donald Trump recently said he asked that testing be slowed down because more testing would reveal more infections.
The U.S. coronavirus task force, led by Vice President Mike Pence, is expected to hold a briefing public Friday, its first public briefing in nearly two months.