A cheap and widely available drug has been found to cut the risk of death for patients with coronavirus by a third.
Medical bosses have hailed a 'huge breakthrough' as tests found that the already existing drug, dexamethasone, could stop huge numbers of people dying with the disease.
The low-dose steroid treatment is part of the world's biggest trial testing existing treatments to see if they can fight against Covid-19.
Scientists found that when used on people who had contracted coronavirus, it cut the risk of death by a third for patients on ventilators. For those on oxygen, it cut deaths by a fifth.
Researchers estimate that if the drug had been available in the UK from the start of the pandemic up to 5,000 lives could have been saved.
As dexamethasone is cheap, it could also be of major benefit in poorer countries struggling with high numbers of Covid-19 patients.
Commenting on the results of what is known as the RECOVERY trial today, NHS chief executive Simon Stevens said: "NHS hospitals, researchers and clinicians have worked together at breakneck speed to test new treatments for covid-19, and it is amazing to see work that would normally take years bear fruit in just a matter of months.
"This research agility is not only important for coronavirus patients, but augurs well for the streamlined innovation that the NHS and the UK life sciences now must pioneer."
Professor Stephen Powis, NHS medical director added: “This is a huge breakthrough in our search for new ways to successfully treat patients with covid, both in the UK and across the world.
"It is thanks to NHS staff and patients who participated in the trial that from now, we are able to use this drug to dramatically improve Covid-19 survival for people in hospital who require oxygen or ventilation.”
Other top medics have described the results as more than they could ever have dreamed of.
