Steroid should be kept for serious coronavirus cases, WHO says

FILE PHOTO: Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) attends the signing of the memorandum of understanding between WHO and the WHO Foundation in Geneva, Switzerland, May 27, 2020. Christopher Black/WHO/Handout via REUTERS

LONDON/GENEVA (Reuters) - A cheap steroid that can help save the lives of patients with severe COVID-19 should be reserved for serious cases in which it has been shown to provide benefits, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said research was at last providing "green shoots of hope" in treating the virus, which has killed more than 400,000 people worldwide and infected more than 8 million.