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‘No single remedy to cure COVID-19 patients’

26 Apr 2020 By SHADDAD AL MUSALMY

As development of drugs for COVID-19 is in the research process worldwide, there is no single remedy that has been used to eliminate the virus among those 329 recovered as of now in the  sultanate. 

H E Dr Mohammed bin Saif al Hosni, Undersecretary for Health Affairs in the Ministry of Health (MoH), said even though his ministry has successfully completed a convalescent plasma extraction and transfusion process and applied it to some patients, no single remedy has been used to eliminate the virus among patients. 

“There is no specific treatment that has been used to eliminate the virus among the recovered patients. The type of treatment depends greatly on the condition of the patient. However, there are chances of expanding the plasma therapy to cover more COVID-19 patients,” H E Dr Hosni said. 

H E Dr Hosni said that hydroxycholoroquine had already been used in health establishments in Oman for the treatment of other diseases like malaria, but, as such, it is not a specific type of treatment for COVID-19.  “Neither convalescent extraction and transfusion therapy nor hydroxychloroquine can be guaranteed as hundred per cent effective remedy against coronavirus in the whole world. More studies are being done,” he said. 

As far as COVID-19 tests are concerned, H E Dr Hosni said, “As many as 2,000 medical tests are conducted on a daily basis.” Meanwhile, H E Dr Hosni, who is also a member of  COVID-19 Supreme Committee, pointed out that a study is underway to explore the possibility of resumption of flights and that working teams are discussing which types of economic activities can be resumed without compromising preventive health procedures. 

“The Supreme Committee will be updated and it will announce the outcome of such studies when deemed necessary,” he said. 

H E Dr Yahya bin Badr al Maawali, Undersecretary in the Ministry of Social Development and head of the Shelter and Relief Sector at the National Committee for Management of Emergency Cases, said his sector is managing a number of isolation centres, which fall in three categories: Institutional preventive isolation, home quarantine for suspected cases, and isolation of patients who do not need to be hospitalised. 

“For preventive isolation patients, more than 3,000 hotel rooms have been allocated and isolation centres have been prepared to accommodate more than 2,400 suspected patients,” he said.

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