MANILA, Philippines — A total of 450 coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients in the country are registered in the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Solidarity Trial as of Wednesday.
In a televised press briefing Thursday, Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said the patients came from 22 active sites across the Philippines.
Three drugs are being eyed as a possible treatment for COVID-19 under WHO’s Solidarity Trial: remdesivir, ritonavir-lopinavir, and ritonavir-lopinavir with interferon beta.
The trials used to include in its tests the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine but it was recently removed from the roster due to safety issues.
Earlier, Vergeire bared that some patients taking remdesivir spent less time in critical care and were able to recover relatively quickly.
However, she explained that the trial for the drug has yet to be finished and such findings are not yet conclusive.
To date, there are 38,805 COVID-19 cases in the country, including 10,673 recoveries and 1,274 deaths.