Ramaswami: If the new outbreaks can be delayed by even a few weeks, the world would have more ability to deal with the epidemic. More importantly, the global flu season in the northern hemisphere is nearing its end, and that would release many more hospital beds and health personnel for handling a new epidemic. Do we have drugs to treat the COVID-19 infections? A combination of HIV drugs –lopinavir with a low dose of ritonavir – can be used to fight the novel coronavirus. WHO has confirmed that the antiviral drug remdesivir, developed originally against ebola though did not serve this purpose, is effective against the virus. Also effective is blood plasma transfusion in patients from those who have recovered. It can be used to treat seriously sick patients as it already has antibodies against the virus. This is not a new treatment, but with more than 30,000 patients recovering, there is now a large pool of donors who can be harnessed for such transfusions.