COVID19 Official Public Service Announcement on Coronavirus from the Government. <\/b><\/p>\n
Learn about Symptoms, Prevention, Travel Advisory, and common FAQs on Coronavirus. Learn about Coronavirus.<\/b><\/p>\n
[COVID19]\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\nThe press conference on Friday 3 July is for Geneva-based journalists only and will not be webcast. Our next virtual press conference is planned for Monday 6 July.<\/h4>\n
<\/p>\n
The World Health Organization held a two half-day virtual summit on 1 and 2 July,<\/p>\n
to take stock of the evolving science on COVID-19 and examine the progress made so far in developing effective health tools to improve the global response to the pandemic.<\/p>\n
The event brought together researchers, developers, and funders from all over the world, all of whom shared approaches and raw data freely, in a show of solidarity from the global science community. All major research institutes carrying out trials shared their data with a view to speeding up scientific discovery and implementation of solutions.<\/p>\n
The group reviewed the latest data from the WHO Solidarity Trial and other completed and ongoing trials for potential therapeutics:<\/p>\n
hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir\/ritonavir, remdesivir and dexamethasone.<\/p>\n
They agreed on the need for more trials to test antivirals, immunomodulatory drugs and anti-thrombotic agents, as well as combination therapies, at different stages of the disease.<\/p>\n
The meeting analyzed 15 vaccine trial designs from different developers, and criteria for conducting robust trials to assess safety and efficacy of vaccine candidates.<\/p>\n
Participants discussed the use of a global, multi country, adaptive trial design, with a common DSMB, and clear criteria to advance candidates through the various stages of trials.<\/p>\n
They noted that most internationally funded research projects have so far favoured high-income countries,<\/p>\n
with very few funded in low- and middle-income countries, highlighting the importance of the ACT-Accelerator Initiative to speed up the development and equitable deployment of COVID-19 tools.<\/p>\n
More evidence is emerging that transmission from humans to animals is occurring, namely to felines (including tigers), dogs and minks.<\/p>\n
The Summit hosted over 1000 researchers and scientists from all over the world and addressed the following topics:<\/p>\n
Background<\/strong><\/p>\n Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, WHO has brought together the world\u2019s scientists and health professionals to accelerate understanding of the novel coronavirus and expedite research and development to find solutions to the pandemic.<\/p>\n WHO has been gathering the latest international multilingual scientific findings and knowledge on a COVID-19 data base, and is running an international therapeutics trial \u2013 the Solidarity trial.<\/p>\n As of 1 July 2020, nearly 5500 patients in 39 countries had been recruited into the trial.\u00a0Overall, over 100 countries in all 6 WHO regions have joined or expressed an interest in joining the trial, and WHO is actively supporting them with:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n