{"id":3924,"date":"2020-05-02T09:31:19","date_gmt":"2020-05-02T09:31:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maadhouze.com\/?p=3924"},"modified":"2020-05-02T09:31:19","modified_gmt":"2020-05-02T09:31:19","slug":"us-states-loosen-lockdowns-as-covid-19-drug-is-approved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/?p=3924","title":{"rendered":"US States Loosen Lockdowns As COVID-19 Drug Is Approved"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

(FILES) In this file photo one vial of the drug Remdesivir is viewed during a press conference about the start of a study with the Ebola drug Remdesivir in particularly severely ill patients at the University Hospital Eppendorf (UKE) in Hamburg, northern Germany on April 8, 2020, amidst the new coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. Gilead Science\u2019s remdesivir, one of the most highly anticipated drugs being tested against the new coronavirus, showed positive results in a large-scale US government trial, the company said on April 29, 2020.\u201dWe understand that the trial has met its primary endpoint and that NIAID (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) will provide detailed information at an upcoming briefing,\u201d the company said. Ulrich Perrey \/ POOL \/ AFP<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

More US states eased pandemic lockdown measures on Friday even as coronavirus deaths rose, while American authorities greenlighted an experimental drug for emergency use on patients.<\/p>\n

Washington also renewed its warnings to Beijing a day after President Donald Trump threatened to slap tariffs on China, with the White House accusing Chinese authorities of \u201cslow-walking\u201d coronavirus data and putting US lives at risk.<\/p>\n

India meanwhile announced that the world\u2019s biggest lockdown \u2014 on most of the nation\u2019s 1.3 billion people \u2014 would continue for two more weeks.<\/p>\n

But several European countries have begun to ease restrictions that have shut in half the world, joining some Asian nations that feel they have already turned a corner.<\/p>\n

The United States took a major step in that direction, with Texas becoming the largest state yet to ease lockdowns, despite reporting 50 deaths on Thursday, the most there since the outbreak began.<\/p>\n

Stores, restaurants, movie theaters, malls, museums and libraries were allowed to reopen in Texas but at just 25 percent capacity. The governor urged residents to wear face masks and maintain social distancing.<\/p>\n

Receptionist Diane Curtis headed to a mall in Houston to buy shoes and \u201cget out of the house.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEventually it\u2019s like every other sickness that comes around,\u201d she said of coronavirus. \u201cIt\u2019ll go away but it\u2019ll probably take time.\u201d<\/p>\n

With about 1.1 million confirmed cases, more than 64,500 of them fatal, the United States has the highest tolls of any country.<\/p>\n

Trump, eager for a turnaround, announced Friday that US regulators have authorized the use of remdesivir to treat serious virus cases. A major clinical trial found that the antiviral helped patients with serious cases of COVID-19 recover faster.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the White House again pointed fingers at Beijing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s no secret that China mishandled this situation,\u201d press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, highlighting what she described as Beijing\u2019s failure to quickly share the virus\u2019s genetic sequence or information on human-to-human transmission.<\/p>\n

\u201cSlow-walking some of that information put American lives at risk,\u201d McEnany said.<\/p>\n

Washington\u2019s sharp rhetoric, including Trump\u2019s unproven allegation Thursday that the virus might have come from a Chinese lab \u2014 an accusation rejected by Beijing \u2014 and threats of more US trade tariffs sent stocks in London and New York tumbling.<\/p>\n

The FTSE shed 1.7 percent while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slid more than 2.5 percent.<\/p>\n

Tech giants Apple and Amazon became the latest firms to announce worrying results as corporations around the world shed staff and slash profit forecasts.<\/p>\n

The economic mood darkened further with the release of a manufacturing survey that pointed to a historic decline in US output in April due to the pandemic.<\/p>\n

In more positive signs, South Africa and Austria were allowing some businesses to reopen from Friday, and hard-hit Spain\u2019s latest daily death toll confirmed the pandemic there was slowing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe road ahead will be long and hard, and we will make mistakes,\u201d warned South Africa\u2019s President Cyril Ramaphosa.<\/p>\n

But despite his caution, Johannesburg construction company owner Sean Lawrenson woke up at the crack of dawn for his first run in weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cGosh, I forgot how beautiful it was, how much I missed it. It felt great,\u201d Lawrenson said, wearing a black face mask and beanie.<\/p>\n

While death rates are slowing in most of Europe, the pandemic\u2019s global toll has topped 235,000, according to an AFP tally of official sources.<\/p>\n

More than 3.3 million infections have been recorded globally, likely a gross underestimate with many countries only testing the most serious cases.<\/p>\n

\u2018We don\u2019t know\u2019<\/strong>
\nScientists believe the killer virus jumped from animals to humans, emerging in China late last year, possibly from a market in Wuhan selling exotic animals for meat.<\/p>\n

But speculative theories have swirled about a top-secret lab in the central Chinese city.<\/p>\n

Asked Thursday if he had seen anything to make him think the Wuhan Institute of Virology was the source of the outbreak, Trump replied: \u201cYes, I have.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he refused to give details and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo indicated he had not seen definitive evidence.<\/p>\n

Regarding reports that he could cancel US debt obligations to China, Trump said he could \u201cdo it differently\u201d by \u201cjust putting on tariffs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The World Health Organization asked to be allowed to take part in a Chinese investigation into the \u201canimal origins\u201d of the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Several investigations into the source of the virus were ongoing, WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said, adding that the global agency was \u201cnot currently involved in the studies in China\u201d but would be \u201ckeen\u201d to participate.<\/p>\n

Lockdowns ease<\/strong>
\nThe pandemic has disrupted economies worldwide and kept billions indoors, but now that numbers are steadying countries are starting to chart a course out of restrictive lockdowns.<\/p>\n

British Health Minister Matt Hancock announced that the UK has hit its target of conducting 100,000 coronavirus tests a day, a step toward eventually lifting lockdown rules in the country that this week overtook Spain to record the world\u2019s third-highest death toll.<\/p>\n

Germany has accelerated plans to lift its lockdown, preparing to ease curbs on public life and reopen churches, museums and zoos after restarting shopping last week.<\/p>\n

Neighboring Austria followed suit Friday with people allowed to gather in groups of 10 or less.<\/p>\n

And in Belgium, patients who survived the virus and emerged from comas were still too weak to leave hospitals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is painful is to have to recover reflexes and actions that are completely natural,\u201d said 74-year-old Pierre Fonteyne, as he gingerly returned to walking.<\/p>\n

There were signs the epidemic may just be getting underway in places that so far have been spared the worst.<\/p>\n

In northern Nigeria\u2019s Kano state, cases have almost tripled in a few days.<\/p>\n

Nasiru Sani Gwarzo, head of a presidential COVID-19 taskforce, told AFP the region appeared to be \u201cat the threshold of the community transmission stage.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(FILES) In this file photo one vial of the drug Remdesivir is viewed during a press conference about the start of a study with the Ebola drug Remdesivir in particularly severely ill patients at the University Hospital Eppendorf (UKE) in Hamburg, northern Germany on April 8, 2020, amidst the new coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. Gilead Science\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3925,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1380,2419,2553,377],"class_list":["post-3924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-afp","tag-covid-19","tag-pandemic","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3924"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3924"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3924\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3926,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3924\/revisions\/3926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theblogonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}