Coronavirus latest: First CureVac vaccine trial results expected in 2 months

The trials conducted by the German pharmaceutical firm are underway and include more than 100 subjects, aged 18 to 60. The US is confident in its vaccine efforts and predicts no more lockdowns. Follow DW for the latest.

• Mexico and India have recorded record daily amounts of cases

• Germany's CureVac is hoping to have initial results from vaccine trials in two months

• Japan and Vietnam have agreed to a bilateral travel plan

• The EU is hoping for progress from today's meeting to discuss the bloc's budget proposal

All times in GMT/UTC   

09:02 Indonesia has recorded an additional 1,041 infections, brining its tally to 43,803.

Health ministry official Achmad Yurianto said the country had registered a further 34 coronavirus fatalities, with the death toll now standing at 2,373, the highest in East Asia outside of China.

So far, 366,581 people have been tested for the novel virus, Indonesia's COVID-19 task force reported.

08:51 Road accidents in Germany reached a record low in April amid coronavirus-related restrictions and guidelines on how citizens could travel around the country, the Federal Statistics Office (Destatis) have reported.

The number of traffic accidents dropped in April by 35%, to 144,400, the lowest monthly figure since German reunification in 1990, Destatis said.

Meanwhile, figures for injuries caused by accidents on the road fell by 33%, to roughly 21,000, for the same period.

The death toll from accidents only fell slightly, to 236, in comparison with April last year.

08:22 India has registered another one-day high of 13,586 coronavirus cases, raising the total to 380,532. India's death toll has now reached 12,573, after a further 336 people died from the virus.

Meanwhile, a lockdown has been reimposed on 15 million people in southern India. New restrictive measures in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu state, and nearby districts, followed a spike in infections in the region, even as the rest of the country of 1.3 billion people gradually return to normal life as lockdowns ease elsewhere.

During the 12-day newly implemented lockdown in Chennai, food shops and petrol stations will remain open, but with restricted opening hours. In addition, citizens can only travel within two kilometers (1.2 miles) of their own homes except for medical emergencies.

08:00 Top US immunologist Anthony Fauci has expressed his confidence that there would soon be a vaccine, describing early trial results as "encouraging."

Speaking to news agency AFP, Fauci dismissed the notion that finding a vaccine will be a long-shot as one hasn't been developed for HIV, despite trying for decades. Fauci said that the two weren't comparable.

"The reason I have more confidence with coronavirus is that we know the majority of people recover from COVID-19 because their immune system clears the virus," he said. "So nature has already given you a proof of concept that it can be done."

He also said he was "cautiously optimistic" regarding the National Institutes of Health's early animal studies on the Moderna vaccine.

07:12 Initial results of a vaccine being developed and trialed by biopharmaceutical CureVac are expected in two months, according to the director of the Institute of Tropical Medicine at Tübingen University, where the trials are taking place.

"It'll be pretty quick," said Professor Peter Kremsner.

CureVac, an unlisted company based in Tübingen, said earlier this week it would start human trials of the vaccine. The first test person will be "observed over a 24-hour period" after receiving the first vaccine.

It hopes first meaningful results could be available in September or October and, under favorable conditions, the vaccine could be approved by the middle of 2021.

At the beginning of the week, German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier announced the government would be acquiring a €300 million ($337 million) stake in CureVac, equating to around 23% of the company's shares. The move was made in an effort to protect the firm from a potential takeover from abroad. The state, however, said it did not wish to influence business decisions.