November 17 2019: This day that year, when first case of coronavirus was reported

New Delhi, Nov 17: It has been a year since the first case of coronavirus was reported in Wuhan.

It was a 55-year-old individual from the Hubei province in China, who first contracted the virus. The case dates back to November 17, 2019 according to the South China Morning Post.

The Chinese authorities had said that they had identified 266 cases. However the Chinese doctors only realised that they were dealing with a new disease in late December, the report also said.

At that time, the authorities said that the virus stemmed from something solid a wet market in Wuhan. However later on it became clear that some of those infected had no connection with the market.

Scientists found that following the November 17 case, about one to five new cases were reported every day and by December 15, the total number of infections reached 27.
The outbreak of the pandemic has changed the scenario across the world. Several countries had to enforce a lockdown to control the pandemic.

The hunt for a vaccine too has been a long one. On Monday, US-based biotechnology giant Moderna announced on Monday that its COVID-19 vaccine has shown to be 94.5 per cent effective in preventing the deadly disease, bringing a glimmer of hope to a world ravaged by the pandemic.

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Moderna's announcement comes just a week after Pfizer and Biontech said their COVID-19 vaccine candidate was found to be more than 90 per cent effective in preventing COVID-19 in participants.

"This is a pivotal moment in the development of our COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Since early January, we have chased this virus with the intent to protect as many people around the world as possible. All along, we have known that each day matters," said Stephane Bancel, CEO of Moderna.

"This positive interim analysis from our Phase 3 study has given us the first clinical validation that our vaccine can prevent COVID-19 disease, including severe disease,” Bancel said as the pandemic has killed more than 1.3 million people worldwide, more than 245,000 of them in the US.

"The independent, NIH-appointed Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB) for the Phase 3 study of mRNA-1273, its vaccine candidate against COVID-19, has informed Moderna that the trial has met the statistical criteria pre-specified in the study protocol for efficacy, with a vaccine efficacy of 94.5 per cent," Moderna said in a statement.

This study, known as the COVE study, enrolled more than 30,000 participants in the US, it added.

Based on these interim safety and efficacy data, Moderna intends to submit for an Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) with the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) in the coming weeks and anticipates having the EUA informed by the final safety and efficacy data.