Cape May Court House- New Jersey has 160,918 total COVID-19 positive cases and 11,721 deaths. Total positive cases of COVID-19 infection in Cape May County is now 637 including 49 deaths. Sadly, we are announcing the death of a 90-year-old female from Lower Township. 

“Words cannot even begin to express our sorrow for another loss of life in Cape May County,” said Cape May County Freeholder Jeff Pierson. “My heart goes out to the friends and family at this difficult time.”

With confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide surpassing 6.2 million and continuing to grow, scientists are pushing forward with efforts to develop vaccines and treatments to slow the pandemic and lessen the disease’s damage.

Some of the earliest treatments will likely be drugs that are already approved for other conditions, or have been tested on other viruses.

As of May 8, three medications had received emergency use authorization (EUA) from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) — the anti-malaria drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine, the anti-viral remdesivir and a drug used to sedate people on a ventilator. Also, the Russian ant-viral, Avifavir, is showing great promise in helping to reduce the number of days a person is infected and cut the period of high fever. 

In mid-May, the small biotech company, Sorrento Therapeutics, announced it has an antibody drug that has been effective in early testing in blocking the virus that causes COVID-19. They say the drug could potentially be used to treat people with COVID-19 as well as help prevent infection.

These drugs are still being tested in clinical trials to see if they are effective against COVID-19. This step is needed to make sure the medications are safe for this particular use and what the proper dosage should be.

So it could be months before treatments are available that are known to work against COVID-19. It could be even longer for a vaccine.

The Chinese expectation of a vaccine by the end of 2020 is aggressive compared to previous estimates that a vaccine could be a year away. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that a vaccine for COVID-19 could be ready as early as November as the FDA fast-tracks vaccine trials. The Department of Health and Human Services has already inked contracts to order $100 million worth of needles and syringes for a mass vaccination campaign. According to the World Health Organization, there were more than 100 potential Covid-19 vaccines in preclinical trials and 10 undergoing human trials. 

Call your healthcare professional if you have concerns about COVID-19 and your underlying health conditions. Stay up to date on the current situation as it evolves. Some reliable sources are New Jersey Poison Information and Education System hotline at 211 or 1-800-962-1253, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at www.cdc.gov, the World Health Organization at www.who.int, the New Jersey Department of Health at COVID19.nj.gov. For additional information visit https://capemaycountynj.gov/ or Cape May County Department of Health at www.cmchealth.net, also like us on Facebook.