'Have some treatments that can limit severity of COVID-19, but not 100% sure yet': WHO

The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Tuesday said it has some treatments that can limit the severity or the length of the coronavirus disease based on the results of some early studies. WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris during a virtual briefing on Tuesday said they have some positive data regarding new studies suggesting some treatments for the disease but added that they are not 100 percent sure to recommend it just yet. 

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Margret also pointed out that even though they have some treatments that could limit the severity of COVID-19 disease but they still do not have anything that can kill or stop the virus. "We do have some treatments that seem to be in very early studies limiting the severity or the length of the illness but we do not have anything that can kill or stop the virus. We do have potentially positive data coming out but we need to see more data to be 100% confident that we can say this treatment over that one," Margret said during the briefing. 

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The outbreak is still causing thousands of deaths across the world as countries race to develop a vaccine for the contagious virus. As per reports, seven countries have started conducting human trials of the vaccine, including China, the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom. The WHO, including the United Nations, the European Union, and other philanthropic organisations managed to raise $8.1 billion to fund a coronavirus vaccine. The United States and Russia gave the virtual meet a miss, while China sent just its ambassador to the EU. The WHO has also faced criticism from the international community over its initial handling of the outbreak. 

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Coronavirus outbreak

According to figures by worldometer website, the world has recorded 4.41 million coronavirus cases so far, of which 2,96,973 people have lost their lives. Health experts believe that the virus originated from a seafood market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where exotic animals were reportedly being traded illegally. 

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(Image Credit: AP)