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Coronavirus live news: WHO warns Covid 'not tired of us' as top UK scientist says vaccine 'feels like watershed moment'

US passes 10m cases; Italy extends restrictions in five regions; Biden announces Covid-19 advisory board

The World Health Organization’s chief called Monday on everyone to keep fighting Covid-19, warning that while we may be sick of battling the pandemic, the virus is “not tired of us”, AFP reports.

Speaking to WHO’s main annual assembly, which resumed Monday after being cut short in May, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also hailed the election of Joe Biden as the next US president, voicing hope it could signal tighter global cooperation to end the pandemic.

Scientists have reacted positively to the announcement by Pfizer/BioNTech that their vaccine has been 90% successful in the vital large-scale trials:

Peter Horby, a professor of emerging infectious diseases and global health in the Nuffield Department of Medicine, University of Oxford, said:

This news made me smile from ear to ear. It is a relief to see such positive results on this vaccine and bodes well for Covid-19 vaccines in general. Of course we need to see more detail and await the final results, and there is a long long way to go before vaccines will start to make a real difference, but this feels to me like a watershed moment.

It is difficult to fully evaluate the interim data without more information but it appears that the vaccine is able to protect against Covid-19 disease. The big question is whether the vaccine can block virus infection and subsequent transmission.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2IkGuhX

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