Covid 19 takes six lives in US; Pence announces treatment to be ready by summer

Los Angeles: The number of US deaths from the novel coronavirus rose to six on Monday, all in the state of Washington, officials said, signalling that the contagion has taken root in the Pacific Northwest.

The White House has been accused of downplaying the threat from the virus. Vice President Mike Pence announced that a treatment for the disease could be available by summer or early fall, but that a vaccine was farther off. Pence declared that a treatment "could literally be available by this summer, or early fall".

He was likely referring to remdesivir, an antiviral drug developed by the pharmaceutical firm Gilead that has already been used to treat one US patient and was moving toward two expansive final stage trials in Asia.

Pence also announced American pharmaceuticals were forming a consortium to fight the virus, and that South Korea and Italy would screen all their airline passengers bound for the US.

Despite its world-class hospitals and cutting-edge research, the US is viewed as vulnerable to an epidemic because of glaring disparities in healthcare availability, with nearly 28 million people without coverage.