The World Health Organisation (WHO) has temporarily suspended trials of hydroxychloroquine from its global study into experimental Covid-19 treatments, saying that its experts need to review all available evidence to date.

The UN health agency in March launched a multinational trial on a variety of repurposed drugs to kick-start the search for a treatment for Covid-19.

Speaking on Monday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that in light of a paper published last week in the Lancet that showed people taking hydroxychloroquine were at a higher risk of death and heart problems, there would be “a temporary pause” on the hydroxychloroquine arm of its global clinical trial.

He said the concern related only to the use of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine for Covid-19, adding that the drugs are accepted treatments for people with malaria and auto-immune diseases.

The US National Institutes of Health is also running a clinical trial to establish whether the drug, administered with the antibiotic azithromycin, can prevent hospital admissions and death from Covid-19.