The World Health Organization expanded its recommended guide for the use of Gilead’s GILD, +0.60% COVID-19 treatment Veklury late Thursday, adding another treatment to its toolbox. The company said WHO updated its guidelines to recommend the drug to treat patients with severe COVID, an expansion from simply “those with non-severe COVID-19 at the highest risk of hospitalization.” In late July, European Commission regulators recommended that Veklury be used as an expanded COVID-19 treatment. The move comes as U.S. known cases of COVID are continuing to ease, although the true tally is likely higher given how many people are testing at home, where the data are not being collected. The daily average for new cases stood at 64,308 on Thursday, according to a New York Times tracker, down 28% from two weeks ago. The daily average for hospitalizations was down 11% at 33,143while the daily average for deaths is down 4% to 491. Globally, the confirmed case tally rose above 611 million on Friday, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins, while the death toll is above 6.52 million with the U.S. leading the world with 95.6 million cases and 1,052,939 deaths.
