The United States biotech firm Moderna has shipped an experimental coronavirus vaccine to US government researchers just six weeks after it started working on the immunization.
According to the CNN, report, Pharmaceutical companies and health officials are working at a breakneck pace to identify treatments or a vaccine to help fight COVID-19.
The virus has so far infected more than 80,000 people. But even with an expedited approval process, a vaccine would not be available for use for at least a year or 18 months, said the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
The coronavirus is spreading in the Middle East, Europe and other parts of the world, while parts of China begin to lower their emergency response level as the number of new cases reported there continues to slow.
More deaths have been reported in Iran and Italy, while South Korea on Wednesday said an 11th person had died of the disease there.
A man in Japan in his 80s, died in Tokyo after catching the new coronavirus, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK reported..
This was Japan’s third fatality from the coronavirus, excluding those who were on the cruise ship “Diamond Princess.”
An American soldier stationed in South Korea has tested positive for the novel coronavirus, commanders said on Wednesday.
The 23-year-old man is the first confirmed infection among the 28,500 US soldiers stationed in the south.
