JOHANNESBURG—Researchers on June 16 announced the first drug shown to save lives among severely ill coronavirus patients, offering hope even as infection rates rose in Africa and Asia, and amid worrisome upticks of contagion in countries that had largely contained the virus.
The cheap, widely available steroid, called dexamethasone, reduced deaths by 35 percent in patients who needed treatment with breathing machines and by 20 percent in those only needing supplemental oxygen, the researches said in England.
