Malaria medicine 'Hydroxychloroquine' being administered to 1,100 COVID19 patients in NY: Trump

Malaria medicine 'Hydroxychloroquine' is being administered to 1,100 coronavirus patients in New York, President Donald Trump has said, exuding confidence that the drug, touted as a "game-changer" by him, might give some incredible results in the fight against the disease that has infected over 140,000 people in the country.

An inexpensive drug widely used since 1955 to treat malaria, Hydroxychloroquine is considered to have relatively harmless side effects.

It is being tested out on the COVID-19 patients in New York on an experimental basis, hoping that this will give a solution in the treatment against the novel coronavirus.

Hydroxychloroquine is being administered to 1,100 patients, people in New York along with the Z-pack, which is azithromycin, and it is very early yet. It started two days ago, but we will see what happens, Trump told reporters at a White House news conference.

Last week, Trump said that the drug could be a "gift from God."
In a statement, Health and Human Services said that FDA has allowed the drugs to be "donated to the Strategic National Stockpile to be distributed and prescribed by doctors to hospitalised teen and adult patients with COVID-19, as appropriate, when a clinical trial is not available or feasible."