Japan to start trials using HIV treatment for coronavirus

TOKYO: Japan is aiming to start trials soon using an HIV treatment for the coronavirus, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said on Tuesday.

“We’re currently preparing to start clinical trials using HIV medication on the novel coronavirus,” Suga, the government’s top spokesman, said at a daily press briefing.

He added that he could not comment on how long it would take for the new drug to be approved.

Japan now has seen over 500 coronavirus cases, with more than 450 of them from a cruise ship docked in Yokohama.

Meanwhile, the number of deaths in China’s central Hubei province from a coronavirus outbreak rose by 93 to 1,789 as of Monday, the province’s health commission said on its website.

There had been a further 1,807 cases detected in Hubei, the epicentre of the outbreak, taking the total in the province to 59,989.

Most of the new deaths on Monday were in Hubei’s provincial capital of Wuhan, where the virus is believed to have originated. Wuhan reported 72 new deaths, down from 76 on Sunday. A total of 1,381 people in Wuhan have now died from the virus.

New confirmed cases in Wuhan stood at 1,600, down from 1,690 on Sunday.