Steroid Treatment Sparks Hope Among Virus Victims

UAE reports 346 new cases, 732 recoveries, 2 deaths; US narrows support to seven vaccines; Beijing imposes partial travel ban, closes schools; New Zealand reports two new cases.

Britain is to start giving seriously ill coronavirus patients a basic steroid treatment hailed as a “major breakthrough” on Tuesday capable of reducing the global pandemic’s death toll as worrying new outbreaks surfaced.

A new and “extremely severe” cluster of cases in Beijing cast doubt over efforts to get the virus under control although the news from Britain came as a boost after months of grim statistics.

Researchers led by a team from the University of Oxford administered the widely available steroid dexamethasone to more than 2,000 severely ill COVID-19 patients.

Among those who could only breathe with the help of a ventilator, dexamethasone reduced deaths by 35 per cent.

Scientists at Imperial College London will start immunising people in Britain this week with their experimental coronavirus shot, while pharmaceutical company Sanofi and the French government announced more than 800 million euros ($890 million) in investment Tuesday as part of the worldwide race to find an effective vaccine.

About a dozen vaccine candidates are currently in early stages of testing in thousands of people.