Swiftly rising coronavirus cases across the United States and abroad fueled fears of a pandemic resurgence on July 19 and sent shockwaves through stock markets as the highly contagious Delta variant appeared to be taking hold.
U.S. Covid-19 cases are up around 11 percent over the previous week – almost entirely among people who have not been vaccinated – officials said on July 8, as the highly infectious Delta variant becomes the dominant Covid-19 strain in the country.
U.S. health regulators approved Roche’s arthritis drug Actemra for emergency use to treat hospitalized Covid-19 patients, giving an extra boost to a medicine that was already allowed to be administered on compassionate grounds.
In a roundup of scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines, a prostate cancer drug improved Covid-19 survival in a clinical trial and mildly ill young Covid-19 patients reported lasting symptoms in another study.
Younger adults are seeking out Covid-19 vaccines at a slower rate than older adults, and if that pace of vaccination continues through August, vaccine coverage among younger adults will not reach levels achieved with older adults, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported on June 21.
Gilead Sciences Inc. said an analysis showed the company’s antiviral remdesivir reduced mortality rates in hospitalized patients with Covid-19 and increased the likelihood of being discharged by day 28 after a five-day course of the treatment.
GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology said final results from a late-stage study of their monoclonal antibody confirmed sotrovimab significantly reduced hospitalization and death among high-risk Covid-19 patients when given early in the disease.
Pfizer Inc.’s oral rheumatoid arthritis drug Xeljanz reduced death or respiratory failure in hospitalized Covid-19 patients with pneumonia in Brazil, meeting the study’s main goal.
A Covid-19 antibody cocktail developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Roche reduced deaths in hospitalized patients whose own immune systems had failed to produce a response, a large British study found on June 16.
While the United States, Canada and Mexico are reporting overall reductions in Covid-19 cases and deaths, new infections are increasing in the rest of the Americas, Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director Carissa Etienne said.
