The Presidential Task Force, PTF, on Covid-19, has on Wednesday, stated clearly that no medication has been licenced for treating coronavirus patients in Nigeria yet.
This was made known by the National Coordinator of the PTF, Dr. Sani Aliyu, while appearing on Channels Television’s breakfast show, Sunrise Daily.
The PTF Coordinator, who was debunking reports that some drugs and local herbs are available as cure for Covid-19 in the country, insisted that no medication has been confirmed for the disease.
His words: “I must make it very clear at the moment, there is no medication that has been confirmed to be effective and licenced for Covid-19 infection, None.”
He, nonetheless, noted that the United States of America, USA, has given temporal approval for the use of an anti-viral drug called Remdesivir, for clinical trial, in the quest to find a cure for the pandemic.
Remdesivir is an antiviral drug initially developed to treat Ebola, which was given after a major trial found that it boosted recovery in serious Covid-19 patients.
The approval is the latest step in a global push to find viable treatment and vaccine for the coronavirus, which has drastically disrupted the world’s economy, infected millions of people, and killed thousands of people around the world.
Elsewhere, one question on the minds of concerned and curious Nigerians, is what drug(s) has the government been using to treat patients that have recovered in large numbers in the country from the virus, especially in Lagos State.