Cases surge by 20,137; Govt okays steroid for severely ill patients

India on Saturday approved the use of widely available drug dexamethasone to treat Covid-19 patients with moderate and severe symptoms after clinical trials proved its efficacy to reduce mortality.

The Health Ministry revised its ‘Clinical Management Protocol: Covid-19’ to include steroid drug dexamethasone as an alternative to methylprednisolone to treat Covid-19 patients.

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According to the Health Ministry, India had 5,08,953 Covid-19 patients on Saturday morning after the highest single-day spike of 18,552 new infections on Friday. The death toll too shot up by 384 taking the total fatalities to 15,685. According to the DH Covid Tracker, India recorded 20,137 news cases on Saturday, taking the total to 5,29,221, with 409 deaths.

The revised clinical management protocol said that dexamethasone, which is used to reduce inflammation in other diseases such as arthritis, has been cleared for patients in need of oxygen support and those who have an excessive inflammatory response.

“The drug has been tested in hospitalised patients with Covid-19 in the recovery clinical trial and was found to have benefits for critically ill patients and has been shown to reduce mortality by about one third for patients on ventilators, and by about one fifth for patients being maintained on oxygen therapy,” an official statement said.

In India, dexamethasone is part of the National List of Essential Medicines and is widely available, the health ministry said.

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Dexamethasone, a low-dose steroid, has been on the market for over 60 years and usually serves to reduce inflammation.

Clinical trials by a team of researchers from the University of Oxford administered dexamethasone to more than 2,000 severely ill patients hospitalised with Covid-19.