The National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on
COVID-19, Dr Sani Aliyu, has said no medication has been licenced
for treating COVID-19 patients in the country.
Dr Aliyu stated this on Wednesday 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, insisted that
no medication has been confirmed for the disease.
“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,” Dr Aliyu said.
He, however, noted that the United States of America had given
temporal approval for the use of an anti-viral drug called
Remdesivir for a 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
treatments and a vaccine for the coronavirus, which has left half
of humanity under some form of lockdown, hammered the world
economy, and infected more than 3.3 million people.
The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, shared a similar view
last week, stressing that there was no cure yet for the disease but
research was ongoing.
“Yes, chloroquine has been touted as the drug that might be
quite useful in dealing with COVID-19, but nothing has been
confirmed yet. In Nigeria, doctors are also still trying to figure
out how to treat patients,” Dr Ehanire had said during one of the
PTF briefings.
“Clinical trials and other processes are ongoing to validate
various therapeutics for COVID-19 treatment”.
As at today, the Nigeria Centre For Disease Control (NCDC),
confirmed 148 new COVID-19 cases in the country, taking Nigeria’s
total cases to 2,950.
Of the new cases, 43 are in Lagos, 32 are in Kano, while 14 are
in Zamfara.
Ten are in the FCT, nine in Katsina, seven in Taraba, six in
Borno and Ogun, five in Oyo, three in Edo, Kaduna and Bauchi, two
in Adamawa and Gombe, and one each in Plateau, Sokoto and
Kebbi.
The National Coordinator of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on
COVID-19, Dr Sani Aliyu, has said no medication has been licenced
for treating COVID-19 patients in the country.
Dr Aliyu stated this on Wednesday 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, insisted that
no medication has been confirmed for the disease.
“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,” Dr Aliyu said.
He, however, noted that the United States of America had given
temporal approval for the use of an anti-viral drug called
Remdesivir for a 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
treatments and a vaccine for the coronavirus, which has left half
of humanity under some form of lockdown, hammered the world
economy, and infected more than 3.3 million people.
The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, shared a similar view
last week, stressing that there was no cure yet for the disease but
research was ongoing.
“Yes, chloroquine has been touted as the drug that might be
quite useful in dealing with COVID-19, but nothing has been
confirmed yet. In Nigeria, doctors are also still trying to figure
out how to treat patients,” Dr Ehanire had said during one of the
PTF briefings.
“Clinical trials and other processes are ongoing to validate
various therapeutics for COVID-19 treatment”.
As at today, the Nigeria Centre For Disease Control (NCDC),
confirmed 148 new COVID-19 cases in the country, taking Nigeria’s
total cases to 2,950.
Of the new cases, 43 are in Lagos, 32 are in Kano, while 14 are
in Zamfara.
Ten are in the FCT, nine in Katsina, seven in Taraba, six in
Borno and Ogun, five in Oyo, three in Edo, Kaduna and Bauchi, two
in Adamawa and Gombe, and one each in Plateau, Sokoto and
Kebbi.