Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the Government's policy is on the use of hydroxychloroquine as a means of preventing and treating covid-19; and if he will make a statement.

In the United Kingdom, the RECOVERY trial produced clear results that showed the use of hydroxychloroquine in hospital settings did not have a statistically significant impact on patient outcomes. Hydroxychloroquine has been trialled in the community setting in the PRINCIPLE trial, however results are not yet available. At this time, hydroxychloroquine is not recommended or authorised for treatment of novel COVID-19 outside a trial setting.

There are currently two active trials in Turkey for the treatment of mild to moderate coronavirus that are investigating the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine in combination with other drugs. These trials have not yet published any results and do not assess the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine as a prophylactic.