By AFP More by this AuthorLONDONBritain is to start giving seriously ill coronavirus patients a basic steroid treatment hailed as a "major breakthrough" Tuesday capable of reducing the global pandemic's death toll as worrying new outbreaks surfaced elsewhere. Researchers led by a team from the University of Oxford administered the widely available steroid dexamethasone to more than 2,000 severely ill Covid-19 patients. The UK, however, is still struggling with the world's third largest death toll and New Zealand -- which had ended community transmission -- said two new cases reported there were recent arrivals from Britain. Beijing authorities urged residents to not leave the city and closed schools again as officials scrambled to contain the outbreak. Ecuador, which has the region's fourth highest official virus death toll after Brazil, Mexico and Peru, has extended its state of emergency for 60 more days.

Source: Daily Nation June 16, 2020 20:32 UTC