East Asia reports coronavirus progress

A Japanese drug used to treat new strains of influenza helped to speed the recovery of 340 COVID-19 patients in China. Avigan improved lung conditions and shortened patients’ recovery to an average of four days from 11 days for those who did not receive it. On Thursday, China reported no new locally transmitted COVID-19 cases in the Hubei province for the first time since the outbreak began. The Chinese government said, without independent confirmation, that all 34 cases recorded on Wednesday came from people who contracted the disease in other countries.

Can we get Avigan in the United States? Japan is still testing the drug and probably won’t approve its widespread use for six months, the Japanese newspaper The Mainichi reported. But its tentative success sparks hope that other antiviral medications could help fight the disease.

Dig deeper: Read Mindy Belz’s report on Italy’s response to the outbreak.