Taking hydroxychloroquine shortly after being exposed to Covid-19 does not help prevent infection in a statistically meaningful way, scientists have reported following a clinical trial.

An experiment involving 821 people across the United States and Canada showed it did not work significantly better than a placebo for this purpose.

The study was led by a team at the University of Minnesota, and their paper was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

"This randomised trial did not demonstrate a significant benefit of hydroxychloroquine as postexposure prophylaxis for Covid-19," wrote the authors.

Read the full AFP story here.