A group of nursing home residents in Texas City who have tested positive for the new coronavirus are being treated with the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine, Gov. Greg Abbott said Monday.

The announcement of the drug’s use for the elderly patients comes as medical professionals and elected officials across the country debate whether the unproven drug is safe for patients diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. President Donald Trump has enthusiastically touted the drug, and the federal government has approved it on an emergency basis in some COVID-19 cases, though medical experts have been far less willing to embrace its widespread use.

Abbott said the patients getting the drug are from The Resort at Texas City, a senior living facility where over 80 residents and workers have tested positive for the new coronavirus. “About 30” patients who are infected are being treated with hydroxycholorquine to “determine whether or not it will be a successful treatment for those patients,” Abbott said.

“They are, for the most part, in their second day of this testing regimen that will last several more days,” Abbott said during a news conference in Austin about the state’s response to the pandemic. “We look forward to updating you as the week progresses about how this drug is aiding or not these patients.”

Philip Keiser, Galveston County’s local health authority, said he was not involved in the decision to treat the patients using the drug, but supported the choice.

“This drug is widely being used to treat COVID-19 although its effectiveness is unclear,” Keiser said.

State Sen. Bryan Hughes, R-Mineola, said the treatment that the nursing-home patients are receiving comes from a donation of 1 million hydroxychloroquine sulfate tablets that he recently helped secure for Texas from Amneal Pharmaceuticals. The New Jersey-based company made the donation directly to the state.

The donation from Amneal Pharmaceuticals went to the Department of State Health Services pharmacy, which has been distributing the drugs to hospitals upon request, according to a department spokesman, Chris Van Deusen. The department has given out 10 bottles to the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.

Hughes said the donation began coming together at least a couple weeks ago through a colleague at his law firm who knows an Amneal board member. The board member said the company was following reports of shortages of the drug and wanted to give it away to people who needed it, Hughes said. The senator then got in touch with state officials like Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, who Hughes said helped him navigate the bureaucracy of getting the donation into the state’s supply.

“We want to make sure that docs have every possible tool to fight this virus,” Hughes said. “Hydroxycholoroquine is not a silver bullet, but many doctors say it’s helping their patients, so let’s make sure they have access to that.”

Texas is not the only state where hydroxychloroquine is being used on coronavirus patients since federal officials signed off on its for emergency use last week, clearing the way for it to be distributed to hospitals across the country. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said earlier Monday that he has allowed its hospitals to use a treatment involving hydroxychloroquine “at their discretion.” He said the drug has been “anecdotally” promising, though it could still be weeks or months before official study results are available.

Hydroxychloroquine is an anti-malarial drug often prescribed for the autoimmune disease lupus that has shown some potential to speed patients’ recovery in limited research — but has not been shown to work against COVID-19 in any significant clinical trial. Chinese researchers found in a small trial that it sped recovery in mildly ill patients, but the study did not examine critically ill patients and has yet to undergo rigorous peer review.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized the drug for “emergency use” among some COVID-19 patients “for whom a clinical trial is not feasible.” But medical experts caution that it is untested and carries significant risks, including heart arrhythmia that can lead to cardiac arrest.

Trump has promoted use of the drug, while his senior medical adviser Anthony Fauci has cautioned that rigorous study of the drug is still necessary.

There are at least 7,276 coronavirus cases in Texas, including 140 deaths, according to the latest numbers from the Texas Department of State Health Services. The cases are spread across 157 of the state’s 254 counties.

There have been 85,357 coronavirus tests conducted in Texas, according to the DSHS figures.

The department on Monday began reporting the number of patients in Texas hospitals who are confirmed to have the virus. That figure was 1,153 in its latest update.

Source: Texas Tribune Blue Left News