An arthritis drug that cuts the risk of death for the sickest Covid-19 patients by 24 per cent could save thousands of lives just as the NHS starts to be overwhelmed.
Tocilizumab was also found to reduce the time that critically ill patients spent in intensive care by up to ten days, offering help to hospitals facing what the head of the health service called last night an “incredibly serious situation”.
Boris Johnson promised: “These lifesaving drugs will be available through the NHS with immediate effect.”
Updated guidance will be issued to NHS hospitals today encouraging them to use tocilizumab in their treatment of Covid-19 patients who are admitted to intensive care units.
Sir Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England, could not say he
