Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has expanded the use of chloroquine, an anti-malaria drug, to treat patients with milder symptoms of the coronavirus, AP reported.
The drug was promoted by US President Donald Trump, who said that it is good against the coronavirus, although there is no clinical evidence of the drug's effectiveness in treating the virus.
Chloroquine is already used in Brazil to treat patients with more serious symptoms of Covid-19, but Bolsonaro has now expanded the list of uses of the drug to include patients with milder symptoms such as stomach pain, cough and high fever.
Bolsonaro, who compares the coronavirus to a "weaker flu", said that there is no scientific evidence yet, but the drug is used in Brazil and all over the world.
The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Friday evening that the coronavirus pandemic is spreading in South America, which has become the "new epicenter" of the infection, reported the Agence France-Presse.
Brazil, which in that part of the world is the country most affected by the coronavirus, is now the second country after the USA in the number of infected.
1,6 million infected people have been registered in the USA, and 326.488 infected people in Brazil, more than 20.00 of them in the last 24 hours.
So far, Russia has been second with 326.488 infected.
In Brazil, 21.048 people have died from the coronavirus, and it is the sixth country in terms of the number of deaths in the world, after the USA, Great Britain, Italy, France and Spain.
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