Coronavirus: WHO welcomes research breakthrough, Beijing concerned

British researchers announced Tuesday that they have made "a major breakthrough" in the treatment of seriously ill patients with Covid-19, at a time when China is facing a worrying outbreak of the disease in Beijing.

Officials in the UK clinical trial Recovery have discovered that a steroid drug, dexamethasone, reduces mortality in the most severely ill by a third.

The World Health Organization (WHO) hailed a "scientific breakthrough". "It is the first proven treatment that reduces mortality in patients affected by Covid-19 with oxygen or respirator assistance," commented WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

This drug is already used in many indications for its powerful anti-inflammatory effect.

New wave in Beijing?

At the same time, in China, the epidemic situation in Beijing was considered "extremely serious" by the authorities, raising fears of the possibility of a new wave of contaminations.

More than a hundred people have been infected since last week in the megalopolis of 21 million inhabitants, engaged in "a race against time" against the virus, said the spokesman of the town hall, Xu Hejian.

This rebound in the number of infections, centered around the giant market in Xinfadi, in the south of the capital, prompted the authorities to order the closure of all schools and universities in Beijing on Tuesday.

The mayor urged residents to avoid "non-essential" travel and prohibited residents of affected areas from leaving the capital.

"Anyone who really has to leave Beijing will have to provide a certificate attesting to a negative test carried out in the past seven days," said Chen Bei, the deputy secretary-general of the city hall.

The Covid-19 made its appearance in late 2019 in China, in Wuhan in the center of the country, before reaching the whole planet.

At least 8,090,290 cases of infection, including 438,250 deaths, have been recorded in total, especially in Europe, the continent most affected with more than 2.4 million cases (188,349 deaths) and in the United States, which account the largest number of diagnosed cases (more than 2.1 million) and deaths (116,567), according to a count made Tuesday at 19:00 GMT by AFP from official sources.

On the Old Continent, the progression of the disease is now under control, say the governments, which reopened the borders with their neighbors on Monday.

Spain waits until June 21 to open its borders with EU countries, except Portugal. But since Monday it has welcomed its first German travelers to the Balearic Island for months, as part of a pilot project.

State of emergency in Chile

On the other side of the Atlantic, the pandemic continues to rage in Latin America and the Caribbean, which have exceeded 80,000 deaths.

Half are listed in Brazil which, with 45,241 dead (including 1,282 Tuesday) is the second most bereaved country.

In Chile, the "constitutional emergency state of catastrophe" was extended by three months to curb the epidemic, while Ecuador extended the state of emergency by 60 days, until August 13.

And Peru has recorded more than 7,000 deaths from the coronavirus, for 237,000 infections after three months of confinement. The Minister of Health, Victor Zamora, however noted positive signs: "The epidemic shows a decline (...) the rate of contagion slows down".

The United States and Canada have decided to extend the closure of their common border until July 21 for all non-essential travel. The same will apply to the US-Mexico border.

The daily toll in the United States remained below 400 for the second day on Monday, but the country continues to register some 20,000 new cases each day.

The monsoon, aggravating factor

Another country where the epidemic shows no sign of ebb, India fears a worsening of the health crisis with the annual monsoon and its procession of diseases.

"The Covid-19 left us helpless," says Vidya Thakur, who has more than three decades of medical experience in an underfunded Indian public health system. "The monsoon will make things even more complicated."

More than half a million people are infected each year in India by diseases favored by the rains, like dengue fever and malaria, during the great monsoon which strikes the country of South Asia from June to September. Infections with symptoms almost identical to those of Covid-19: fever, difficulty breathing, loss of appetite.

And a few weeks before the great annual pilgrimage to Mecca scheduled for the end of July, Saudi Arabia is faced with a delicate choice: limit the number of pilgrims or cancel the hajj. "The decision will soon be taken and announced," said a Saudi official.