"To treat the new coronavirus infection, the National Medical Research Center for Cardiology of the Russian Health Ministry is ordered to use, store, distribute and donate to other medical organisations ... non-registered drug with the international non-proprietary name hydroxychloroquine", the document says.
Earlier this week, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko reported that a Russian company has developed a drug for treatment of the novel coronavirus disease and plans to begin clinical trials in 10-12 days.
Russia has registered 27,938 coronavirus cases so far. Of them, 16,146 are in Moscow.
On a global scale, more than 2,1 million people have been diagnosed with the coronavirus so far, and over 140,000 have died. Meanwhile, the number of recoveries has surpassed 532,000, according to John Hopkins University.
