The United States has doubled its investment — to nearly $1 billion — to expedite development of a potential COVID-19 vaccine by American firm Moderna, which on Monday begins the decisive final phase of clinical trials.

The government now plans to spend up to $472 million on top of the previously announced $483 million, the Moderna biotechnology company announced Sunday.

Moderna said the added investment was justified by its decision, in conjunction with the government, to “significantly” expand a Phase Three clinical trial of a candidate vaccine to include 30,000 participants.

In a small, initial trial, Moderna’s experimental vaccine produced coronavirus antibodies — which should help fend off the disease — in the bodies of all 45 participants.

In the expanded trial starting Monday, half the 30,000 participants will receive a 100-microgram dose of the vaccine, while the rest will be given a placebo.

The United States has suffered more than 146,000 coronavirus deaths, leading the world in that grim category, even as the number of new cases has continued to surge.

It has announced massive investments in a huge effort to expedite vaccine development and get millions of Americans vaccinated by early next year.

On Wednesday, the American-German BioNTech/Pfizer pharmaceutical alliance announced that the US government had committed $1.95 billion to procure 100 million doses of its eventual vaccine.

With laboratories around the world in a furious race to develop a first effective vaccine, Moderna seems to hold the lead as it enters a final round of clinical trials — a decisive step in determining whether a vaccine is both effective and safe.

Moderna, which has been working with US health authorities, said it expects to be able to produce 500 million doses a year — and potentially up to 1 billion — starting in 2021.

Chinese biotech firm Sinovac said July 6 that it, too, would begin a Phase Three clinical trial “this month,” in collaboration with Brazil’s Butantan biologic research center.

Also reporting encouraging early results have been a British project developed by Oxford University in partnership with the multinational AstraZenica laboratory, and a Chinese project, led by researchers from agencies including the Academy of Military Medical Sciences.

That effort is being financed by the CanSino biotechnology group, which is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

In all, nearly 200 candidate vaccines are in development, including 23 now in the clinical phase, being tested on humans.

China on Monday reported its highest number of coronavirus cases in three months, part of a worrying swell of second and third-wave infections that are hitting Asia and Europe.

Australia has been rocked by its deadliest surge since the start of the pandemic, Hong Kong is experiencing record daily numbers and Spain’s caseload has tripled in the last fortnight.

Meanwhile, other regions are still battling their first waves after never getting the virus under control: the US alone has recorded almost 4.23 million cases of COVID-19, while infections in Latin America and the Caribbean surged on Sunday to briefly overtake North America’s total for the first time.

Worldwide the confirmed case count has passed 16 million, although experts believe that figure is vastly short of the true number. One study in New Delhi found a quarter of people tested had contracted the virus, amounting to 4.7 million in the Indian capital alone.

China–where the coronavirus was first reported in December last year– recorded 61 cases on Monday, the highest daily figure since April.

The second-wave surge was propelled by clusters in separate regions, and authorities have declared “wartime mode” lockdown measures to combat the spread of the deadly contagion.

Most of the 57 new domestic cases were in the far northwestern Xinjiang region, where an outbreak in the regional capital Urumqi occurred in mid-July.

A second programme of mass testing was launched Sunday in the city of 3.5 million people to check residents who had previously tested negative, with 2.3 million people screened so far.

Chinese authorities have also rolled out mass testing for hundreds of thousands in the northeast port city of Dalian where a fresh cluster broke out last week.

Deadly new waves

Australia on Sunday suffered its deadliest day since the pandemic began, with 10 fatalities and a rise in new infections despite an intense lockdown effort.

And on Monday the country recorded its highest number of daily cases of at least 549, more than Wednesday’s high of 501 with some states still to report their numbers.

Daniel Andrews, premier of Victoria state where the latest outbreak is centred, begged anyone sick to stay at home.

In Hong Kong, which seemingly had a lid on local transmissions for weeks, new infections have snowballed sparking fears the latest outbreak is spreading out of control.

More than 1,000 infections have been confirmed since early July — more than 40 percent of the total since the virus first hit the city in late January. Eighteen people have died.

The city said it will stop most ships from changing crews in the densely populated territory from Wednesday to cut back on quarantine exemptions blamed for causing a third wave of cases.

And Spain, where more than 28,400 have lost their lives, has also witnessed a recent surge in cases with nearly 1,000 on both Thursday and Friday, although the government insisted the country was safe to visit and was not experiencing a second wave.

“Like other European countries, Spain has new outbreaks,” Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya told reporters on Sunday, adding: “It’s not unusual.”

London sparked a spat with the Iberian country, hugely popular with British holidaymakers, after it announced passengers arriving from Spain should spend a fortnight in isolation.

However, Britain defended its decision with Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab telling Sky News: “We can’t make apologies for doing so… We must be able to take swift, decisive action.”

Cases pass 16 million

As worldwide infections passed 16 million, Latin America and the Caribbean totalled more than 4.34 million, according to an AFP tally, briefly surpassing North America, where the United States remains the hardest-hit country in terms of both caseload and death toll.

But North America soon moved ahead again, as the US recorded more than 55,000 new cases in 24 hours for a total of nearly 4.23 million. Combined with Canada’s 116,000 cases, North America now has more than 4.34 million infections.

In Latin America, Brazil is the worst-hit country with almost 2.42 million cases and more than 87,000 deaths. There have also been increases in infections in Mexico, Peru, Colombia and Argentina, all of which are trying to resume economic activities.

Gold prices have crossed an all-time high in international markets with a $30 leap. However, according to experts, profit-booking might be just around the corner and gold prices may take a correction.    

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the US-China trade war, investors have been pouring money in gold, which has pushed the precious metal to its highest-ever price of $1,937 per ounce on Monday.

The price of gold keeps fluctuating in the international market as it absorbs the impact of different countries’ markets opening with a lag. When this report was published, gold was trading at $1,933.

The last time gold prices crossed the $1,900 mark was in September 2011 when it reached $1,921 per ounce.

The increase in international prices of gold will see the per tola price rising to around Rs121,500 – a change of around Rs2,800 since Friday, which is the last time the All Sindh Saraf Jewelers Association shared gold rates.

Rashid Ali, head of business development at HG Markets, says the reason behind this recent hike is the US-China trade war as well as aggravating diplomatic ties between the super powers. Both countries ordered the closure of each other’s consulates in Houston and Chengdu amid allegations of espionage last week.

Investors flocking to the safe-haven metal has been boosted by a weak dollar, which fell to its lowest level in over a year, and hopes that the Federal Reserve will set a policy that helps the economy recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The bullion is considered a safe and secure place to invest, especially during times of crisis.

Meanwhile, Rays Commodities COO Adnan Agar says gold prices have been increasing and broke all-time records due to fears of a second wave of the coronavirus as cases increase in some countries.

The uneasy US elections later this year have also been increasing investors’ anxiety and these uncertain times have been pushing them towards secure investments such as gold. Agar thinks the tensions between the US and China is due to the upcoming election.

Meanwhile, negligible interest rates in major countries have also made gold all the more attractive to investors as they will not be getting much by putting their money in government securities.

But Agar thinks that profit-booking or profit-taking, which investors do by selling stocks like gold bullion when their prices go up, may just be around the corner.

He said that when gold prices move up by around $50, investors start to book profits and prices take a correction. Gold prices have broken their previous all-time high record. He expects them to soon be taking a correction and short-term prices may come down from that point.

But he added that the overall environment is favorable for gold and its prices may not be coming down anytime soon. In fact, they will continue to rise unless the uncertain times due to the coronavirus, US elections and struggling economies end.