The virus, which has now killed more than 454,000 people and infected 8.4 million people worldwide.

The COVID-19 restrictive measures put in place by many countries has caused a major loss in the economy, but WHO noted that the coronavirus still posed a major threat to the world.

According to the WHO Chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus during a virtual press conference on Friday,  he said, “The world is in a new and dangerous phase. Many people are understandably fed up with being at home… but the virus is still spreading fast.”

Scientists in the world are still working to come up with vaccines to cure the deadly disease as no vaccine has been discovered to tackle the disease despite several trials.

However, many trials by the Western world has proven not to be the cure the world is waiting for.

A few months back the United States government declared that hydroxychloroquine was effective for the coronavirus pandemic.

The British Government also announced earlier this week that dexamethasone will now be used on COVID-19 patients, adding that researchers in the country have identified the drug to help in reducing the mortality rate of COVID-19.

The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire made the announcement during the daily briefing of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 on Thursday, June 18

Osagie said “I did mention that there is a medicine that we are going to ask our clinicians to try. It is not a medicine that you should be using but medicine that the doctor is to use. Luckily this medicine is not new and it is well-known to be used for other purposes as a steroid. It was found to be useful in this case. It is easy to try it out because we know the side effects. Also, the usual dosage is well-known and it is not a medicine that is terribly expensive or unavailable. We are going to ask our clinicians to also consider adding it for their trials and see what results from it works in our own circumstances for this particular problem.”

Recall that British Prime Minister on Tuesday said UK researchers identified a new drug, which is effective and has reduced COVID-19 deaths risk.

According to the report, Dexamethasone is said to have reduced death risk for COVID-9 patients in ventilators by one-third and oxygen by one fifth.

WHO’s Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who reacted to this in a statement late on Tuesday, disclosed that the agency’s clinical guidance would be updated to reflect how and when the drug should be used.

“This is the first treatment to be shown to reduce mortality in patients with COVID-19 requiring oxygen or ventilator support.

“WHO will coordinate a meta-analysis to increase our overall understanding of this intervention.

“WHO clinical guidance will be updated to reflect how and when the drug should be used in COVID-19,” Ghebreyesus said.

The drug, which scientists in the United Kingdom have hailed as a major breakthrough, is a widely used low-dose steroid which has been found to considerably reduce the risk of patients dying from COVID-19.

The NCDC in a series of Tweets posted on Tuesday night, June 16 said it is aware of the drug, however, the drug has not yet been approved for use in Nigeria.

NCDC tweet read “The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) is aware of recent outcomes from a UK-Government funded clinical trial for COVID-19. The results support the use of Dexamethasone as a possible treatment to reduce the risk of death among COVID-19 patients, who require oxygen or mechanical ventilation. Please note that the Government of Nigeria has not validated or approved any treatment for COVID-19. In addition, the use of Dexamethasone for COVID-19 treatment has not been validated by WHO. We are aware of ongoing clinical trials conducted by scientists in the UK and will work with our sister agencies to evaluate this emerging data on the use of Dexamethasone. We will inform the general public on outcomes following scientific review and validation”.