Coronavirus live news: more cases of ‘Covid-linked’ syndrome in children as UK deaths top Spain and France
Nearly 100 cases of unusual illness in at least six countries; UK adds deaths outside hospital to official figure; Trump says he won’t extend social distancing rules. Follow the latest updates
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China’s Forbidden City will reopen on Friday, three months after it closed due to the coronavirus crisis – the latest signal that the country has brought the disease under control, AFP reports.
The sprawling imperial palace sitting across Tiananmen Square was shut down on January 25 as authorities closed tourist attractions and took other extraordinary measures to contain the virus, including locking down an entire province.
A top World Health Organization official declined comment on Wednesday on reports that Gilead Science’s remdesivir could help treat Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus, but said that further data was needed, Reuters reports.
“I wouldn’t like to make any specific comment on that, because I haven’t read those publications in detail,” Dr Mike Ryan, head of the WHO’s emergencies programme, told an online briefing in response to a question, adding it can sometimes take a number of publications to determine a drug’s efficacy.
“Clearly we have the randomised control trials that are underway both in the UK and US, the ‘Solidarity trials’ with WHO. Remdesivir is one of the drugs under observation in many of those trials. So I think a lot more data will come out,” he said.
Ryan added: “But we are hopeful this drug and others may prove to be helpful in treating Covid-19.”
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