WHO hails COVID-19 steroid as 'lifesaving scientific breakthrough'

Geneva: The World Health Organization on Tuesday hailed as a “lifesaving scientific breakthrough” the British use of a basic steroid to treat severely ill COVID-19 patients, saving about a third of them.

“This is great news and I congratulate the Government of the UK, the University of Oxford, and the many hospitals and patients in the UK who have contributed to this lifesaving scientific breakthrough,” WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

Up to now there has been no effective treatment or vaccine for the coronavirus which has claimed nearly 440,000 lives since it first appeared in China in December.