Chloroquine found to work as treatment for Coronavirus in some tests - Minister

News Agency Of Nigeria

April 7, 2020 8:18 PM

The Federal Government has said that chloroquine had been found in some tests to work in a test-tube as a treatment for the Novel Coronavirus pandemic.

Minister of Health, Dr. Osagie Ehanire. [Twitter/@femigbaja]

It said it was not yet clear if it would work as well inside the body.

Dr Osagie Ehanire, Minister of Health, disclosed this on Tuesday in Lagos, at the Presidential Task Force (PTF), briefing on the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ehanire said that some people had claimed they had herbs and local cures for COVID-19, “but the efficacy of medicine needs to be proven before the government can recommend it for people to take”.

He noted that other states were prepared, “but Lagos State is a forerunner because it has the most cases”.

The minister stated that the state had also learnt a lot from dealing with Ebola outbreak.

Earlier, Chairman of the Presidential Task Force for the control of COVID-19, Mr Boss Mustapha, had said that one person could endanger an entire community.

Mustapha, who is also the Secretary Government of the Federation, said that the President had commended the governor and people of Lagos State for their response to the COVID-19 outbreak in the country.

“I am very confident that we shall overcome COVID-19 as a people,” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), through its verified Twitter account on Monday, said that as at 9:30 p.m. there were 238 confirmed cases of COVID-19 with five deaths and 35 discharged in the country.

NCDC statistics indicated 120 cases in Lagos, Abuja, 48; Oyo, Nine; Osun, 20; Ogun, four; Kaduna, five; Enugu, two; Akwa Ibom, five; Edo, 11; and Bauchi, six.

Others are Ekiti, two; Rivers, two; Kwara, two; while Benue and Ondo had one case each.

News Agency Of Nigeria