New Delhi (NVI): Raising hopes of cure for the deadly novel coronavirus, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said 20 vaccines are in development and many clinical trials of therapeutics are underway as part of research.
WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the global body has received applications for 40 diagnostic tests.
“Even as the therapeutics tests are being carried out, there is a need to ensure that supplies of those medicines are available if they prove effective. WHO has also been monitoring the potential risk of a disruption to medicines supplies as a result of the COVID-19 epidemic,” he said.
More than 1,00,000 positive cases of the coronavirus have been recorded around the world till date, with the total number of deaths surpassing 3,300 globally, according to media reports.
“WHO continues to recommend that all countries make containment their highest priority. Countries also continue to find, test, isolate and care for every case and to trace every contact,” Ghebreyesus said.
Earlier in the week, WHO called on all nations to “pull out all the stops” to fight COVID-19 as it continues to spread outside of China.
“This is not a drill. This is not the time to give up. This is not a time for excuses. This is a time to pull out all the stops,” Tedros said.
Tedros added that world health officials are “deeply concerned” about the increasing number of countries reporting cases, especially those with weaker health-care systems. He’s also worried that some countries aren’t taking this seriously enough or have decided that there’s nothing they can do to curb local outbreaks.
Whereas, WHO officials last week increased the risk assessment of the coronavirus from “high” to “very high” at a global level.
