[...]

"Every patient I've prescribed [hydroxychloroquine] to has been very, very ill and within 8 to 12 hours, they were basically symptom-free," said Dr. Anthony Cardillo, the CEO of Mend Urgent Care.

"So clinically I am seeing a resolution" for people suffering from the Coronavirus.

WATCH:

[...] Australia was not overwhelmed with patients in hospitals like New York and London were, so Australia had time to make careful and considered clinical decisions.

Dr Sacha Stelzer-Braid, a senior scientist in the virology research lab at the University of New South Wales and the Prince of Wales hospital, said while laboratory studies using hydroxychloroquine to inactivate the virus look promising, we still needed to be cautious about the possible use of the drug to shorten the duration of infection or even possibly prevent infection, if used prophylactically in healthcare workers, for example.

"We do need to wait for the results of proper clinical trials to see whether the in vitro laboratory results translate to having any effects in humans," she said.

"It sounds like part of the stockpile will be used for these clinical trials in the first instance, which is a wise move. At the moment we don't have any antivirals that we can use against the virus, so I can understand the move to acquire a drug that has preliminary evidence as possibly effective. However, I think we still need to be careful and observe our usual protocols of clinical trials, albeit at a more accelerated rate than usual."

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The fallout from the coronavirus outbreak that has killed around 90,000 people and wreaked havoc on economies around the world could push around half a billion people into poverty, Oxfam stated on Thursday.

The report released by the Nairobi-based charity ahead of next week's International Monetary Fund (IMF)/World Bank annual meeting calculated the impact of the crisis on global poverty due to shrinking household incomes or consumption, FRANCE24 reported.

"The economic crisis that is rapidly unfolding is deeper than the 2008 global financial crisis," the report found.

"The estimates show that, regardless of the scenario, global poverty could increase for the first time since 1990," it said, adding that this could throw some countries back to poverty levels last seen some three decades ago.

...

To help mitigate the impact, Oxfam proposed a six-point action plan that would deliver cash grants and bailouts to people and businesses in need, and also called for debt cancellation, more IMF support, and increased aid. Taxing wealth, extraordinary profits, and speculative financial products would help raise the funds needed, Oxfam added.

Calls for debt relief have increased in recent weeks as the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic has roiled developing nations around the world. In total, governments around the world would need to mobilize at least $2.5 trillion to support developing nations.

"Rich countries have shown that at this time of crisis they can mobilize trillions of dollars to support their own economies," the report said, adding, "Yet unless developing countries are also able to fight the health and economic impacts the crisis will continue and it will inflict even greater harm on all countries, rich and poor."