June 5 coronavirus news

The past three months have been financially painful for many Americans -- but not for billionaires.

US billionaires have become $565 billion richer since March 18, according to a report published Thursday by the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive think tank.

Total wealth for billionaires now stands at $3.5 trillion, up 19% from the low point near the beginning of the pandemic, the report said. Amazon (AMZN) boss Jeff Bezos alone is worth $36.2 billion more than he was on March 18.

Since that day, nearly 43 million Americans have filed for initial unemployment benefits. Lower-income workers, especially in travel and service-sector jobs, have been hit particularly hard by the crisis.

The numbers put an exclamation point on the deep divide between haves and have-nots that is helping to fuel unrest across the United States. Wealth inequality is likely to get even worse because of this crisis, experts say.

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US billionaires have become $565 billion richer during the pandemic

There are now 1,872,660 cases of the novel coronavirus in the US, according to Johns Hopkins University, after 21,140 new infections were reported on Thursday.

So far, 108,211 people have died from the disease, with 1,036 new fatalities reported in the previous 24 hours.

The totals includes cases from all 50 states, the District of Columbia and other U.S. territories, as well as repatriated cases. 

For the latest updates, you can follow CNN's map which refreshes every 15 minutes:

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Tracking Covid-19 cases in the US

Novavax, Inc., a Maryland-based biotech company, said Thursday it landed a major US Department of Defense contract to make its coronavirus vaccine candidate. 

The Defense Department will provide up to $60 million in funding for the vaccine, which goes by the experimental name NVX-COV2373. The company will make several of the components in the US.  

Novavax will deliver 10 million doses to the Department of Defense in 2020 that could be used in late-stage clinical trials or under an Emergency Use Authorization if the US Food and Drug Administration approves the vaccine.

How far away is the vaccine?: Novavax started a Phase I safety trial with volunteers in May. Those results are expected by July. If successful, Novavax will test in a larger number of patients. 

Novavax is ahead of several competitors, including Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi and Merck, that are developing a vaccine but are yet started clinical trials, according to the World Health Organization.

Pharmaceutical companies Moderna and AstraZeneca have candidates in clinical trials.  

Mexico health officials said Thursday they had confirmed a record 4,442 new cases -- bringing the overall number of infections in the country to 105,680. 

It marked the largest daily increase in new coronavirus cases for the third straight day

Mexico also recorded 816 additional deaths, taking the total toll to 12,545.

Brazil registered a record 1,473 more coronavirus-related fatalities in the 24 hours to Thursday, its health ministry reported, with the country’s death toll now at 34,021.  

The new fatalities push Brazil's toll past that of Italy, which has reported 33,689 deaths so far, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally. 

Brazil now has the third-highest death toll worldwide, behind the United States and the United Kingdom.

The health ministry also said it registered 30,925 new coronavirus cases over the previous 24 hours, increasing the nationwide total to 614,941.

Senior health ministry official Eduardo Macário acknowledged that the country is facing difficulties even measuring the extent of coronavirus contagion. 

It's a common, over-the-counter drug used for treating heartburn -- yet famotidine may have given relief to patients with the novel coronavirus.

Ten patients home sick with Covid-19 took famotidine, the active ingredient in Pepcid, and in all 10 cases, their symptoms improved, according to a study published Thursday. None were hospitalized, and all survived.  

Read more here:

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Common heartburn drug may have helped 10 patients at home with coronavirus

AstraZeneca announced Thursday that it will make 300 million doses of a Covid-19 vaccine candidate from Oxford University scientists by the end of 2020.

The UK pharma giant signed what it is calling a “landmark” $750 million deal with the Vaccine Alliance Gavi and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).

CEPI will manufacture the vaccine while Gavi will lead the procurement efforts. 

The company also made a licensing deal with India’s Serum Institute to make 1 billion doses of the vaccine available in India, as well as developing countries.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, along with the World Health Organization’s Access to Covid-19 Tools Accelerator, will make sure that the vaccine is fairly distributed across the world.

Wait ... a vaccine already?: Typically, companies wait to start the manufacturing process until after it is known the vaccine is safe and works. But with the threat of the pandemic, several drug companies have accelerated this process.

The Oxford vaccine is currently being tested in about 10,000 adult volunteers.

The company said on its website that it realizes the vaccine may not work, but at no profit, it is “committed to progressing the clinical programme with speed and scaling up manufacturing at risk” and will make sure that it is available to people around the world “including to those in countries with the lowest means.”

Coronavirus patients with high blood pressure are twice as likely to die from the infection, a new international study found. 

High blood pressure has been known to worsen the risk of serious symptoms, but the study -- published in the European Heart Journal -- shows just how bad the risk is.

The international team of researchers, led by Fei Li and Ling Tao of the department of cardiology at Xijing Hospital in Xi'an, China, studied the records of 2,866 patients treated in Wuhan, where the coronavirus outbreak emerged.

Just under 30% of them had high blood pressure.

The team found that 4% of patients with high blood pressure died, compared to 1.1% of those without high blood pressure.

After some adjustments for differences among the patients, that worked out to a doubled risk of dying for the patients with high blood pressure. And 7.9% of patients who had stopped taking their blood pressure medications died.