A new coronavirus treatment has been found.
The cheap and widely available drug dexamethasone has been shown to help save the most seriously ill COVID-19 patients and dramatically cut the risk of death in a new study by British researchers, reported the BBC.
The low-dose steroid treatment cut the risk of death by a third for patients on ventilators, and by a fifth for patients on oxygen.
Researchers estimated the drug could have saved up to 5,000 lives in the U.K. if it had been available from the start.
"The study is a large, strict test that randomly assigned 2,104 patients to get the drug and compared them with 4,321 patients getting only usual care," reported the Associated Press.
This study, which found the drug had no effect on less sick patients, is the same trial that showed the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine did not work against the coronavirus.