Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh is once more rejecting calls for hydroxychloroquine, or any other drug for that matter, to be used as part of the Ministry’s initial treatment plan for COVID-19 patients. 

For any drug to be registered in the public health sector, it has to be signed off by the Health Minister for a particular clinical use. Prescribing a drug for any other reason than what it is listed for, Minister Deyalsingh warns, would leave “the administrating doctor or nurse, as well as the State, open to civil and criminal liability.”

But he says once they are able to “overcome this legal hurdle”, there’s a possibility testing could begin in the future.

Chief Medical Officer Dr. Roshan Parasram, as head of the Ethics Committee, will collaborate with the University of the West Indies to come up with protocols to guide the use of experimental drugs.  Dr. Parasram says in the meantime, supportive care such as ventilators and ICU support will be continue to be utilised.