Since December of 2019, the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak continues to grow in China and countries such as Singarpore, Japan, UK, the US, Germany.

Source: Xinhuanet.com

Up till Apr.27 24:00 p.m. (BJS):

Updated News on the Novel Coronavirus

On April. 3th, according to Sciencedirect, Ivermectin, an FDA-approved anti-parasitic previously shown to have broad-spectrum anti-viral activity in vitro, is an inhibitor of the causative virus (SARS-CoV-2), with a single addition to Vero-hSLAM cells 2 hours post infection with SARS-CoV-2 able to effect ～5000-fold reduction in viral RNA at 48 h. Ivermectin therefore warrants further investigation for possible benefits in humans.

On Mar.22, China has begun human injection trials in Phase 1 coronavirus vaccine clinical trial , the first batch of volunteers have been injected.

On Mar.9, Renowned Chinese medical research institution in Beijing, Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, enters a strategic collaboration with Canadian-based biotechnology company Cyclica to discover antiviral drug candidates for COVID-19 and explore opportunities to design multi-targeted antiviral compounds. Read More here. 

On Mar.1, New York City’s first case of coronavirus was reported by the New York Times. Acording to Times, the woman aged 30 had recently been to Iran and is currently isolated in her home in Manhattan.

On Feb. 27, it is reported by Xinhuanet that Tibetan medicine is used to help fight the coronavirus in northwest China's Qinghai Province. The provincial hospital of Tibetan medicine has produced a batch of anti-virus medications featuring Tibetan medicine. Local Tibetan medicine hospitals also produced medications to prevent virus infection and distributed them to the public for free.

On Feb.25, Moderna has released the first batch of mRNA-1273, the Company’s vaccine against the novel coronavirus, for human use, to be used in the planned Phase 1 study in the U.S.

On the afternoon of 22 February, at the 27th local press briefing on the epidemic control of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Zhejiang Province, Song Zhiheng, deputy head of the Science and Technology Department of Zhejiang Province, said that the first batch of vaccines has successfully induced antibody production and entered the stage of animal test.

At 10:00 on February 21, the state news office of China held a press conference on the situation of scientific and technological innovation supporting epidemic prevention and control. Xu Nanping, Vice Minister of science and technology, said the fastest vaccine will be applied for clinical trials in late April.

On February 20, according to China Daily, Hubei Province in China records drop in confirmed CNP cases for third straight day.

On February 18, The Lancet, an authoritative medical journal, published a communication article. 27 well-known public health scientists from eight countries signed a statement supporting scientific research, public health and medical workers in China in fighting against the novel Coronavirus epidemic. The article strongly condemn conspiracy theories for creating panic, rumors and prejudice and damaging the global anti epidemic work.

On Feb.18th, Newly reported confirmed cases In all regions on the Chinese Mainland (excluding Hubei & Wuhan province) marking the 15th day of declining. 8 Places such as Liaoning, Shanghai, Tibet have Zero newly confirmed cases. For the first time, the number of daily new confirmed cases nationwide dropped below 2000.

On Feb.16th, according to Xinhuanet, New infections of novel coronavirus drop for 12th consecutive day outside Hubei.

On Feb.13th, as reported by China Daily, the novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic is noticeably slowing down in China, with Hubei province, the center of the outbreak, recording the lowest number of new infections since late January and the rest of the country seeing the total confirmed cases decline for eight consecutive days.

On Feb.12th, according to China Daily, the only confirmed patient of the virus in the Tibet autonomous region, was recovered and was discharged from the hospital, making the autonomous region the only provincial-level area in China without any confirmed or suspected infections.

On Feb.12th, 14840 newly confirmed cases (including 13332 clinically diagnosed cases) are reported in Hubei Province. Hubei has included clinically diagnosed cases into confirmed cases number.

On Feb.11th, according to Xinhuanet, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said  that the first vaccines for the novel coronavirus could be available in 18 months.

On Feb.11th, WHO renamed Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) as "COVID-19" to avoid references to specific location, animal species or group of people.

On Jan.31st, WHO held an emergency committee meeting on the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus (2019-nCov) and announced the epidemic was listed as the "public health emergency of international concern" (PHEIC), the highest level in the World Health Organization's emergency response mechanism for infectious diseases.

About the 2019 Novel Coronavirus

2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) is a a coronavirus identified as the cause of an outbreak of pneumonia or respiratory diseases first detected in Wuhan, China. A growing number of patients have been confirmed infected by the virus in China and across many countries in the world indicating person-to-person spread is occurring. 

It has been proved that droplets, physical contact and aerosol are the main transmission routes of 2019 novel coronavirus.

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