CNN reported that the World Health Organisation is issuing a warning against using "untested drugs" to treat patients of the novel coronavirus on Monday.

"Small, observational and non-randomized studies will not give us the answers we need. Using untested drugs without the right evidence could raise false hope and even do more harm than good and cause a shortage of essential drugs that are needed to treat other diseases," WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a press conference.

"That’s why WHO has launched the SOLIDARITY trial, to generate robust, high-quality evidence as fast as possible. The more countries sign up to the trial and other large studies, the faster we will get results on which drugs work and the more lives we will be able to save," he added.