The number of cities and governments around the world ordering people to distance themselves over the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is rising; as of Tuesday, health officials have encouraged everyone to limit interactions in order to avoid overwhelming the healthcare systems. In the United States, known cases of the coronavirus surpassed 5,000 as testing, which was limited for some time, has unexpanded. Innovative advanced testing is important for various reasons, one of which is the potential assistance a test can provide during vaccine development. Researchers at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity – a joint venture between the University of Melbourne and the Royal Melbourne hospital – were able to test blood samples at four different time points in an otherwise healthy woman in her 40s, who presented with COVID-19 and had mild-to-moderate symptoms requiring hospital admission. The team was able to dissect the immune response leading to successful recovery from COVID-19, which might be the secret to finding an effective vaccine. Professor Katherine Kedzierska, a laboratory head at the Doherty Institute explained that the results "showed that even though COVID-19 is caused by a new virus, in an otherwise healthy person, a robust immune response across different cell types was associated with clinical recovery, similar to what we see in influenza. This is an incredible step forward in understanding what drives recovery of COVID-19. People can use our methods to understand the immune responses in larger COVID-19 cohorts, and also understand what's lacking in those who have fatal outcomes." CHF Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: CHFS), Co-Diagnostics, Inc. (NASDAQ: CODX), Opko Health, Inc. (NASDAQ: OPK), Novavax, Inc. (NASDAQ: NVAX), OpGen, Inc. (NASDAQ: OPGN)
In the meantime, a coordinated effort to combat the pandemic between the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the World Heim PMalth Organization (WHO) is underway, the two working closely to ensure the latest and most reliable information and tailored guidance reaches the global business community. According to a report by WHO, all businesses have a key role to play in minimizing the likelihood of transmission and impact on society. For instance, on Monday, the financial markets were in freefall after the Federal Reserve's Sunday announcement that it is slashing interest rates by a full percentage point and admission that it would buy USD 700 Billionin Treasury securities. Currently, the benchmark federal fund rate is at a range of 0 to 0.25 percent, down from a range of 1 to 1.25 percent. The cut essentially brings the nation's interest rate to zero. As such, this is an aggressive step to protect the U.S. economy from the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the Trump administration announced that it is working on continually expanding testing and is preparing to ask Congress to infuse about USD 850 Billion in additional stimulus to help the economy deal with a system paralysis. The administration also announced that it favors making direct payments to citizens to help the public deal with the increasing social distancing. Thanks to these measures, the stock markets modestly recovered on Tuesday.
CHF Solutions, Inc. (NASDAQ: CHFS) just announced breaking news this morning that, "the key takeaways from its clinician webinar held yesterday, which stressed the importance of managing fluids administered to critically ill, COVID-19 patients to avoid potentially life-threatening complications.
