Coronavirus: US looks to approve new treatments as cases pass 10,000
US president Donald Trump has announced that anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine will be made available almost immediately to treat coronavirus, as the number of cases in the US passed 10,000.
The drug is one of a number of therapies that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is investigating as possible treatments for the virus.
Trump said that the treatment could be a “game-changer” in the fight against coronavirus, and hailed the work being done by the FDA to combat the disease:
“For the FDA to act so fast is an incredible thing… it’s a very exciting time for medicine”, he said.
The White House’s coronavirus task force coordinator Dr Deborah Birx said that 10 per cent of tests for the virus were coming back positive.
She added that 50 per cent of all cases in the US came from just 10 counties.
US authorities have been focused on amping up the number of tests conducted, with New York governor Andrew Cuomo saying the state tested nearly 8,000 people overnight.
Sign up to City PM’s Midday Update newsletter, delivered to your inbox every lunchtime
In a wide-ranging press conference, the president said that the virus was “too bad, because we have never had an economy as we had a few weeks ago”.
He was, however, bullish on the future of the economy, saying that it would “be back”:
“It’s going to go up very rapidly [once the crisis is over]… back to where we were and beyond”.
Trump also highlighted his role in pulling together an emergency aid package for workers and business, saying that he had “slashed red tape like never before” to get the measures in place.
Despite hailing the bipartisan spirit on Capitol Hill, he could not resist another jibe at the expense of China, saying:
“If people had known about [the disease], it could have been stopped where it came from… China”.