A UK clinical trial, led by Eastern Cape-raised Oxford University professor of primary healthcare David Butler, has confirmed that a commonly prescribed asthma steroid drug shortens the Covid-19 recovery time in non-hospitalised elderly patients by three days.

According to PRINCIPLE, the world’s largest platform trial of community-based treatments for Covid-19, it was found that the inhaled common corticosteroid – budesonide – lowers inflammation in the body...