US regulators have given full approval for the antiviral drug remdesivir to treat the Covid-19 patients in hospitals. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Veklury, the drug's brand name, cut the recovery time on average by five days during clinical trials. "Veklury is the first treatment for COVID-19 to receive FDA approval," the FDA said in a statement, the BBC reported on Friday. The World Health Organization (WHO) said last week remdesivir had little to no effect on patients' survival..

The WHO said this was based on its own study - but the drug's manufacturer Gilead rejected the findings of the trial. Remdesivir had been authorised for emergency use only in the US since May. It was recently given to President Donald Trump after he tested positive for Covid-19. He has since recovered. In the statement, the FDA said the drug was approved on Thursday "for use in adult and paediatric patients 12 years of age and older and weighing at least 40 kilograms for the treatment of Covid-19 requiring hospitalisation".