The World Health Organization will discontinue its trials of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and combination HIV drug lopinavir/ritonavir after they failed to reduce mortality in hospitalised Covid-19 patients.
The setback came as the WHO also reported more than 200,000 new cases globally of the disease for the first time in a single day.
The United States accounted for 53,213 of the total 212,326 new cases. "These interim trial results show that hydroxychloroquine and lopinavir/ritonavir produce little or no reduction in the mortality of hospitalised Covid-19 patients when compared to standard of care. "Solidarity trial investigators will interrupt the trials with immediate effect," the WHO said in a statement, referring to large