Coronavirus World Update, May 14: Russia sees decline in cases, UK approves Roche antibody test, Wuhan’s 10-day target

Globally, over 4.44 million people have been reported to have COVID-19 so far. About 1.66 million have already recovered while 298,439 have succumbed to the disease. Dr Mike Ryan, the Executive Director of the World Health Organisation said on Wednesday that the COVID-19 causing virus may become one of the viruses that kill people every year. [caption id=“attachment_8211431” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Image by 贺 朱 from Pixabay.[/caption] Meanwhile, on Thursday, the European Medicines Agency said that it is difficult to roll out a vaccine for COVID-19 by September since they are all being prepared from scratch. We can, however, hope to get the vaccine by early 2021.

Russia saw a decline in cases, lockdown eased further in New Zealand

For the first time in 12 days, Russia has reported less than 10,000 cases in a day. The country saw 9,974 new cases on Thursday, bringing the total number of cases to 252,245. About 93 people succumbed to the disease in the past 24 hours. A total of 2,305 people have died of COVID-19 in Russia now. On Thursday, New Zealand reportedly entered phase 2 of the two-month-long lockdown. Restrictions were further eased to open barber shops, retail stores, restaurants and other public places. The country had started easing restrictions late in April.

UK approved Roche’s antibody test, Japan started using remdesivir

After approving remdesivir last week, Japan has reportedly started to use it for the treatment of severe COVID-19 patients. Gilead is set to send 1.5 million doses of the medicine to Japan, the first lot of which has already been supplied. After getting FDA approval, Roche’s antibody test has also gained the approval of Public Health England (PHE), an executive agency under the Department of Health, UK. According to the officials at the PHE, the test is 100% accurate and is highly reliable. Antibody tests detect if a person has already developed antibodies to an infectious agent, in this case, SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19. The British government is reportedly in talks with Roche to get more test kits and will soon be rolling them out for testing in the country.

Wuhan started testing 11 million people, South Korea undertaking anonymous testing for nightclub cluster

According to media reports, Chinese health officials said that they have already started testing the 11 million citizens of Wuhan today and are planning to complete all the tests within 10 days. The 10-day directive is reportedly a rough plan where each district in Wuhan will have to test all its members within 10 days from the day they start it. Some districts would be starting the tests this week and some the next week. The districts are asked to make and submit their own testing plans. South Korea has urged citizens who visited the Seoul nightclub cluster area after April 24 to get themselves tested for COVID-19 anonymously. About 131 people have tested positive in the cluster so far. This includes some members from the LGBTQ community, which has caused a lot of backlash against the community in the country. For more information, read our article on ELISA antibody test for COVID-19 Health articles in Firstpost are written by myUpchar.com, India’s first and biggest resource for verified medical information. At myUpchar, researchers and journalists work with doctors to bring you information on all things health.