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Future vaccines that do arrive on the scene may not provide long-term immunity. If COVID-19 is like other coronaviruses, including some that cause the common cold, individuals may need annual booster shots to ward off subtle changes.
On the treatment side, last week University of Oxford researchers reported that a widely used anti-inflammatory drug called dexamethasone improved survival in COVID-19 patients, the first treatment to show life-saving promise months into the pandemic.
While the virus ebbs and flows regionally, it’s on the march at the global level, where there are 8.5 million confirmed cases and the pace is accelerating. At the start of May, the daily tally of new confirmed cases was running at about 88,000; now it’s 176,000, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Some experts say the global death toll will top one million.
In B.C. 168 people have died.
— with files from Bloomberg
