Appeal for vaccine grows louder after Trump's disinfectant theory sparks uproar

Washington: The United Nations on Friday launched a global push for a coronavirus vaccine as President Donald Trump triggered an uproar by suggesting patients be treated with disinfectant and the US death toll passed 50,000.

Across the Muslim world, hundreds of millions of faithful opened the Ramadan holy month under stay-at-home conditions, facing bans on prayers in mosques and on the traditional large gatherings of families and friends to break the daily fast.

With effective medical treatments still far away, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said defeating the pandemic will require global organizations and world leaders joining forces with the private sector to develop and distribute a novel coronavirus vaccine.

"We face a global public enemy like no other," Guterres said. "A world free of COVID-19 requires the most massive public health effort in history."

The UN chief's appeal came a day after the US president prompted an outcry with his suggestion that industrial cleansers be used to treat patients.

"Is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning?" Trump mused during a televised briefing. "It sounds interesting to me."

As experts -- and disinfectant manufacturers -- rushed to caution against any such dangerous experiment, the president tried to walk back his comments claiming he had been speaking "sarcastically."

The hardest-hit country by far in the global pandemic, the US had recorded 51,017 deaths and more than 890,000 infections.