ATHENS — The committee of experts of the health ministry gave the green light for colchicine, an inexpensive medicine for heart diseases, to be included in the protocol of oral treatments in patients with Covid-19, after the results of a large Canadian study in which Greece participated.

The study showed that the administration of colchicine to Covid-19 patients "reduced mortality by 44 pct, hospitalization by 25 pct and the need for intubation by 50 pct ," professor of cardiology Spyros Deftereos, who coordinated the study in Greece, said to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA).

What did the Committee of Experts decide on the administration of colchicine to Covid-19 patients in Greece?

The committee decided, as the president of the Hellenic Society of Infections and member of the committee Panagiotis Gargalianos said to ANA, to include the drug colchicine for use in patients outside the hospital. However, as he pointed out, "the administration will be done after a doctor's prescription in certain categories of patients with a positive coronavirus molecular test."

These are all patients over the age of 60 who have a positive molecular test regardless of whether or not they have underlying diseases. Also for patients 18 to 60 years with at least one underlying disease or fever over 38 for at least 48 hours.