The World Health Organisation has halted its trials of anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and lopinavir/ritonavir, a drug combination used to treat HIV/AIDS for the treatment of hospitalised COVID-19 patients after they failed to reduce the death rate.

While there was no "solid evidence" of increased mortality for hospitalised patients given the drugs, there were "some associated safety signals in the clinical laboratory findings" of an associated trial, it added.