17, June 2020
Cameroon’s reported COVID-19 cases top 10,000 0
The total confirmed COVID-19 cases in Cameroon has reached 10,140, according to Africa CDC’s real time statistics updated Tuesday morning, making it the sixth African nation that passed the 10,000 mark.
The death toll stands at 277, while number of recovered cases rose to 5,601, according to data from the Africa CDC.
Last week, the Cameroonian government said it will scale up testing capacity for COVID-19 to limit transmission. As of Monday, some 50,000 samples have been analyzed since the start of the pandemic in Cameroon in March, health minister Malachine Manaouda tweeted Monday evening.
“We will therefore strengthen our three-T (tracking-testing-treat) strategy and set a new testing target”, tweeted Manaouda.
Cameroon reported its first coronavirus infection on March 6, an imported case from Europe, and has closed national borders and applied social distancing since March 18.
Despite the increase of COVID-19 cases in the country, Cameroon eased some restrictions in May, and reopened schools for students in examination classes on June 1 to allow partial restoration of activities.
Source: Xinhuanet
18, June 2020
WHO halts hydroxychloroquine trial for Covid-19 over lack of proven benefit 0
The World Health Organization said on Wednesday that testing of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine in its large multi-country trial of treatments for COVID-19 patients had been halted after new data and studies showed no benefit.
WHO expert Ana Maria Henao-Restrepo said investigators leading the so-called Solidarity Trial testing the drug – which had been promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump – had reviewed recent evidence and decided to stop recruiting new patients.
“After deliberation, they have concluded that the hydroxychloroquine arm will be stopped from the Solidarity Trial,” Henao-Restrepo told a media briefing.
In a statement issued later on Wednesday, the WHO said the decision was based on evidence from the Solidarity Trial itself, as well as from a UK-led trial that had found the drug did not help COVID-19 patients, and from a review of other evidence on hydroxychloroquine.
Data from those studies “showed that hydroxychloroquine does not result in the reduction of mortality of hospitalised COVID-19 patients,” the WHO statement said.
It said Solidarity Trial investigators would not add any more patients to the hydroxychloroquine arm.
But it added: “Patients who had already started hydroxychloroquine but who have not yet finished their course in the trial may complete their course or stop at the discretion of the supervising physician.”
Data from a UK-led clinical trial known as the Recovery trial found last week that the anti-malaria drug showed no benefit for patients with COVID-19.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Monday revoked its emergency use authorization for hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19, saying it was no longer reasonable to believe that hydroxychloroquine and the related drug chloroquine would be effective in treating the disease.
Source: REUTERS