Coronavirus: Trump announces two drugs will be available 'almost immediately'

President Donald Trump speaks during press briefing with the coronavirus task force, at the White House. AP Photo / Evan Vucci

Donald Trump has announced that two drugs could be a "game changer" in treating coronavirus and will be made available "almost immediately" by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

During a briefing with the coronavirus taskforce at the White House, the US President said the antimalarial drugs — hydroxychloroquine and Cloroquine— would soon be available for "prescribed use."

"It's been around for a long time, so we know if things don't go as planned, it's not going to kill anybody," he said today.

"We have to remove every barrier or a lot of barriers that were unnecessary and they've done that to get the rapid deployment of safe, effective treatments and we think we have some good answers.

"This could be a tremendous breakthrough."

Trump said efforts were being made to uncover a cure for the virus but necessary testing phases meant it would be some time until anything that worked could be disseminated to the public.

"[So we're also] looking at things to make people better.

"Or at the very early stages make people not even know they had it."

FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn told reporters he had "great hope for how we are going to come out of this situation".

"What's important is not to provide falsehood, but provide hope," he said.

Hahn added that it was the FDA's "responsibility to the American people to ensure that products are safe and effective" when discussing the drugs and therapeutic options being explored to address the coronavirus.