COVID-19 ; WHO stops testing hydroxychloroquine on patients

The coronavirus cases in India rose to 1,45,380 on Tuesday as per data shared by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Out of these 80,722 are active cases, 60,490 COVID 19 cases have been cured or discharged, and one has been migrated. 4,167 people have died due to the virus.

With 52.667 cases, Maharashtra remains the most affected state in the country followed by Tamil Nadu at 17,082 cases and Gujarat at 14,460 cases.

Meanwhile, The World Health Organization has suspended testing the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 patients due to safety concerns. The WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, cited a paper published in the Lancet that showed people taking hydroxychloroquine were at higher risk of death and heart problems.

This is the same drug that United States President Donald Trump had claimed to be taking last week. However, Deadline reports, “President Donald Trump revealed in an interview on Sinclair Broadcasting on Sunday that he had ‘Finished, just finished,’ his course of the unproven treatment. ‘And by the way, I’m still here…To the best of my knowledge, here I am.'”

The WHO has also warned countries, where coronavirus infections are declining, of could still face an “immediate second peak” if they let up too soon on measures to halt the outbreak.

Globally, 5.4 million people have been infected and nearly 3.4 lakh people have died according to Johns Hopkins data. With 1,662,302 cases United States has maximum number of COVID-19 patients, followed by Brazil with 374,898 cases, and Russia at 353,427 cases.