World leaders have pledged to accelerate work on tests, drugs and vaccines against Covid-19 and share them around the globe, but the US did not take part in the launch of the World Health Organization (WHO) initiative.

 

French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa were among those who joined a video conference to launch what the WHO billed as a “landmark collaboration” to fight the pandemic which has till date claimed 195,000 lives.

 

The aim is to speed development of safe and effective drugs, tests and vaccines to prevent, diagnose and treat Covid-19, the lung disease caused be the novel coronavirus - and ensure equal access to treatments for rich and poor.

 

New York’s new deaths rose slightly as Governor Andrew Cuomo said signs suggest the coronavirus is “on the decline” in the state. Italy posted the fewest fatalities in almost six weeks, and France’s deaths were the lowest in almost a month, reported Bloomberg.

 

More than 2,821,030 cases have been registered in 193 countries and territories. Of these cases, the US has the highest number of deaths with 51,949 out of 905,333 cases. 

 

Italy is in second place with 25,969 deaths out of 192,994 cases, followed by Spain (22,902 deaths and 223,759 cases), France (22,245 deaths and 159,828 cases) and Britain with 19,506 fatalities and 143,464 cases.

 

China - excluding Hong Kong and Macau - has to date declared 4,632 deaths and 82,816 cases, just 12 more since Friday.

 

Europe has a total of 120,140 deaths and 1,344,172 cases. The United States and Canada have 54,278 deaths and 948,872 cases, Asia has 7,830 deaths and 193,796 cases, Latin America and the Caribbean have 7,416 deaths and 149,539 cases, the Middle East has 6,204 deaths and 147,530 cases, Africa has 1,330 deaths and 29,138 cases and Oceania has 105 deaths and 7,991 cases

 

In another development, WHO has said that there was currently "no evidence" that people who have recovered from Covid-19 and have antibodies are protected from a second coronavirus infection. 

 

The United Nations heath agency in a statement warned against issuing "immunity passports" or "risk-free certificates" to people who have been infected, saying the practice may actually increase the risk of spread as they may ignore standard advice. 

 

Chile said last week it would begin handing out "health passports" to people deemed to have recovered from the illness. 

 

Once screened to determine if they have developed antibodies to make them immune to the virus, they could immediately rejoin the workforce.

 

According to Reuters, deaths slowed in Spain and Germany, a relatively encouraging sign as Europe’s leaders plan to relax economy-crushing lockdown measures. The UK is the fifth nation to exceed 20,000 deaths, it stated.

 

“We are facing a common threat which we can only defeat with a common approach,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said as he opened the virtual meeting.

 

“Experience has told us that even when tools are available they have not been equally available to all. We cannot allow that to happen,” Ghebreyesus was quoted as saying in a Reuters report. 

 

During the H1N1 swine flu pandemic in 2009, there was criticism that distribution of vaccines was not equitable as wealthier countries were able to purchase more.

 

“We must make sure that people who need them get them,” said Peter Sands, head of the Global Fund to Fight on AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. “The lessons from AIDS must be learned. Too many millions died before anti-retroviral medicines were made widely accessible.”

 

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the objective at a global pledging effort on May 4 would be to raise 7.5 billion euros ($8.10 billion) to ramp up work on prevention, diagnostics and treatment.

 

“This is a first step only, but more will be needed in the future,” von der Leyen told the conference.