Cameroon has required the wearing of face masks by all of its citizens and begun large scale production of Chloroquine to treat COVID-19. The country says its hospitals are already overwhelmed, with more than 850 confirmed cases within 6 weeks, yet it expects confirmed COVID cases to rise into the several thousands. Madeleine Tchuente, Cameroon’s minister of scientific research and innovation, said besides the obligatory wearing of masks, the government has ordered the production of the drug chloroquine to treat COVID-19 patients. She said they have started producing 6,000 tablets per day and expect to drastically increase production when they get some more ingredients from China. Chloroquine is one of the oldest and best-known anti-malarial drugs. It has also attracted attention over the past few decades as a potential antiviral agent. Last week, Cameroon announced that it had seized counterfeit chloroquine from at least 300 pharmacies and hospitals and closed two fake pharmaceutical companies as thousands of its citizens were rushing for the drug with the unproven believe that it can stop COVID-19 infections.
SOURCE: VOA
