US drug regulators on Saturday gave emergency approval to a COVID-19 antibody therapy and G20 nations pushed for global access to vaccines as the COVID-19 pandemic led to further closures in parts of the world.
With cases surpassing 12 million in the US, the highest in the world, many Americans were nonetheless heading to airports to travel for next week’s Thanksgiving holiday, despite health officials’ warnings to stay home.
Some US states were imposing new restrictions, including California, where a 10pm-to-5am curfew was taking effect.
Photo: AFP
The antibody therapy approval in the US offers some hope for those infected, although a relatively small number of doses would be available in the coming weeks.
The same therapy was used to treat US President Donald Trump when he was sickened with COVID-19.
The green light for drugmaker Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc came after REGEN-COV2, a combination of two lab-made antibodies, was shown to reduce COVID-19-related hospitalizations or emergency room visits of people with underlying conditions.
“Authorizing these monoclonal antibody therapies may help outpatients avoid hospitalization and alleviate the burden on our healthcare system,” US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Stephen Hahn said.
Regeneron’s antibody treatment is the second synthetic antibody treatment to receive an emergency use approval from the FDA after a similar therapy developed by Eli Lilly & Co was granted the status on Nov. 9.
The company said it expects to have doses ready for 80,000 patients by the end of this month and about 300,000 patients in total by the end of January.
These would be available to US patients at no out-of-pocket cost under the terms of a US government program.
However, with cases surging across the US and globally, that means access would not be widespread.
The US has added more than 360,000 new COVID-19 cases in the past two days alone.
TYPHOON: The storm’s path indicates a high possibility of Krathon making landfall in Pingtung County, depending on when the storm turns north, the CWA said Typhoon Krathon is strengthening and is more likely to make landfall in Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said in a forecast released yesterday afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the CWA’s updated sea warning for Krathon showed that the storm was about 430km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point. It was moving in west-northwest at 9kph, with maximum sustained winds of 119kph and gusts of up to 155kph, CWA data showed. Krathon is expected to move further west before turning north tomorrow, CWA forecaster Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said. The CWA’s latest forecast and other countries’ projections of the storm’s path indicate a higher
SLOW-MOVING STORM: The typhoon has started moving north, but at a very slow pace, adding uncertainty to the extent of its impact on the nation Work and classes have been canceled across the nation today because of Typhoon Krathon, with residents in the south advised to brace for winds that could reach force 17 on the Beaufort scale as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) forecast that the storm would make landfall there. Force 17 wind with speeds of 56.1 to 61.2 meters per second, the highest number on the Beaufort scale, rarely occur and could cause serious damage. Krathon could be the second typhoon to land in southwestern Taiwan, following typhoon Elsie in 1996, CWA records showed. As of 8pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 180km
TYPHOON DAY: Taitung, Pingtung, Tainan, Chiayi, Hualien and Kaohsiung canceled work and classes today. The storm is to start moving north this afternoon The outer rim of Typhoon Krathon made landfall in Taitung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春半島) at about noon yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, adding that the eye of the storm was expected to hit land tomorrow. The CWA at 2:30pm yesterday issued a land alert for Krathon after issuing a sea alert on Sunday. It also expanded the scope of the sea alert to include waters north of Taiwan Strait, in addition to its south, from the Bashi Channel to the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島). As of 6pm yesterday, the typhoon’s center was 160km south of
STILL DANGEROUS: The typhoon was expected to weaken, but it would still maintain its structure, with high winds and heavy rain, the weather agency said One person had died amid heavy winds and rain brought by Typhoon Krathon, while 70 were injured and two people were unaccounted for, the Central Emergency Operation Center said yesterday, while work and classes have been canceled nationwide today for the second day. The Hualien County Fire Department said that a man in his 70s had fallen to his death at about 11am on Tuesday while trimming a tree at his home in Shoufeng Township (壽豐). Meanwhile, the Yunlin County Fire Department received a report of a person falling into the sea at about 1pm on Tuesday, but had to suspend search-and-rescue
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