Thousands of lives will be saved in the UK with the government immediately authorising the NHS to use the world’s first coronavirus treatment proven to reduce the risk of death. Dexamethasone, an anti-inflammatory drug, has been immediately approved to treat all UK hospitalised COVID-19 patients requiring oxygen, including those on ventilators, from today.
The drug has been proven to reduce the risk of death significantly in COVID-19 patients on ventilation by as much as 35% and patients on oxygen by 20%, reducing the total 28-day mortality rate by 17%.Funded by the UK government, via the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the Oxford University UK RECOVERY trial is the first clinical trial anywhere in the world to show a treatment provides significant impact in reducing patient mortality.
Wyss Institute to Accelerate Drug Testing For COVID Treatment
The Wyss Institute and the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have signed an agreement worth up to $16 million over the next year to use Wyss technologies to identify and test FDA-approved drugs that could be repurposed to prevent or treat COVID-19.
Specifically, DARPA will use the computational drug-discovery pipelines and human organ chip technologies developed by the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. The team, led by Wyss Founding Director Donald Ingber, has already found multiple approved compounds that show promise against the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19.
COVID-19 Testing Percentages For Long Island
With thousands being tested, just .9 percent tested positive for COVID-19 in Nassau County, with .8 percent testing positive in Suffolk County, similar to other counties throughout the state.In the past 24 hours, 3,939 people were tested in Nassau, with 36 testing positive for COVID-19. In Suffolk, 4,110 people were tested, with 33 confirmed to have the virus.
Upwards of 50,000 COVID-19 tests are being conducted daily statewide, according to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The state currently has the lowest rate of infection in the country, the governor noted.New York currently has 1,608 hospitalized with COVID-19, the lowest since Friday, March 20. The three-day rolling average of COVID-19 fatalities is down to 27, the lowest since Saturday, March 21.