Opinions are mixed if the drug works, but thousands of New Yorkers with coronavirus are being treated with an anti-malarial drug.

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Suzanne Schwing spent 10 days at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center after being diagnosed with COVID-19.

She was on a ventilator and her temperature reached as high as 104 degrees. Doctors gave her the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine along with antibiotics and soon, she told ABC, she was all better.

President Trump has called hydroxychloroquine a potential life-saver during the coronavirus pandemic. The FDA approved hydroxychloroquine along with antibiotics for clinical trials to treat coronavirus patients and a study out of China had promising results, ABC reports.

Health experts caution the data is limited and there needs to be more time to study to see if the drug can help people with COVID-19, the New York Times reports.

New York State health officials have sent hydroxychloroquine to 56 New York hospitals to treat about 4,000 patients, the New York Post reports. Patients are being given four or 10-day doses.

The UAlbany School of Public Health is working with two state-led studies to exam potential COVID-19 treatments.

"There is great interest currently on the possible side effects and effectiveness of using hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, and cholorquine to treat COVID-19,” Albany University Public Health Dean David Holtgrave said. “The observational study is beginning at once and will track the impact of the use of these drugs as it naturally occurs in hospitals across the State; this will give us important, timely initial information while the randomized control trial is set up and conducted. We believe it is critical to pair the timeliness of the observational study with the rigor of the randomized controlled trial, and we are honored to be playing in key role in these evaluations with the State.”

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