A small French Trial showed exciting results in a treatment for COVID-19.

[UPDATED 25 March 2020 to include more details about the trial and its limitations]

A vaccine is not going to be available for many months, long after many people have died in the absence of treatment or suppression of the spread of the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. But there is light starting to shine on this horrible situation. Researchers have begun clinical trials for treatments that reduce the viral load in patients and will hopefully speed recovery and reduce lethality.

In an ongoing Chinese trial, researchers found benefit in giving patients chloroquine, a drug used for decades to treat malaria. With results from >100 patients so far reported, chloroquine reduced symptoms of pneumonia and viral load, improved lung morphology on images, and shortened the duration of the disease. These data have not been published, just a summary of the findings has been reported.