Antiviral treatment is first to treat coronavirus approved by FDA; France extends curfew; Study finds between 130,000 and 210,000 US deaths could have been avoided. Follow the latest

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the first drug to treat Covid-19: remdesivir, an antiviral medicine given through an IV for patients needing hospitalization.

The drug, which California-based Gilead Sciences Inc is calling Veklury, cut the time to recovery from 15 days to 10 on average in a large study led by the US National Institutes of Health.

Related: Remdesivir: US regulators approve first drug to treat Covid-19

Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.

My name is Helen Sullivan, you can find me on Twitter here and I’ll be bringing you the latest global Covid news – as well as an coronavirus-related moments in the final presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, which starts in about three hours’ time.

Continue reading…

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