Coronavirus: Russia to treat patients with antimalarial drugs donated by China, as cases top 32,000

Russia recorded its highest daily increase of 4,070 new cases, with officials warning Moscow would see a peak in ‘two or three weeks’
The government says it will allow patients who test positive for or are suspected of having the coronavirus to be treated with hydroxychloroquine

Coronavirus pandemic

Agence France-Presse

Published: 11:30pm, 17 Apr 2020

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Russia on Friday recorded 32,008 coronavirus cases, including a record 4,070 in the last 24 hours, with officials warning that Moscow was two to three weeks away from a peak in infections.

Official figures showed more than half of the new cases were registered in Moscow and the surrounding region. So far 273 deaths have been recorded in Russia, including 41 in the previous 24 hours.

Moscow, Europe’s largest city with some 12 million inhabitants, has been under lockdown since the end of March but officials have complained that many residents are flouting confinement rules.

Deputy mayor Anastasia Rakova warned the city “will face difficult weeks” ahead.

“The peak in morbidity should arrive in the next two to three weeks,” she said in a video released on social media.

Under confinement rules that Muscovites must observe until at least May 1, they are only allowed to leave their homes to go to work, walk their dogs, take out trash or visit their nearest shop.

This week city authorities tightened the lockdown by introducing a digital permit system, requiring anyone travelling by car or public transport to obtain a pass.

Russia has carried out more than 1.7 million coronavirus tests, though there have been concerns about their reliability.

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Meanwhile, the Russian government has authorised the use of an antimalarial drug to treat coronavirus patients despite international concerns over its safety and effectiveness.

The government published an order late on Thursday allowing the use of hydroxychloroquine on patients after China donated more than 68,000 packs of the tablets to Russia.

The order was published after President Vladimir Putin had a phone conversation with Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday evening.

It said the drug would be distributed to hospitals that are caring for patients who have tested positive for coronavirus or are suspected of having it. It said the drug’s safety and effectiveness would be monitored by the state health watchdog.

Hydroxychloroquine has been used for decades against malaria and is being tested worldwide against the virus along with another antimalarial drug, chloroquine.

Both have potentially serious side effects, especially in high doses or when administered with other medications, and their use to treat the virus is still experimental, without having gone through exhaustive clinical testing.

Some see them as potential weapons in the fight against the virus while there is still no proven cure or vaccine.

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US President Donald Trump has touted it as a coronavirus treatment, and in the US a limited emergency-use authorisation has been granted to the drug.

But many scientists are urging caution until larger trials show whether it is safe and effective.

The European Medicines Agency has said that both chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine need to go through clinical trials and should not be used to treat virus cases unless there is a “national emergency”.

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