Per the Independent, two men have been hospitalised after drinking disinfectant in a purported effort to prevent the novel coronavirus.
The men, who hail from Georgia, US, both have a history of psychiatric issues and are expected to make a full recovery.
Director of Georgia Poison Centre, Gaylord Lopez, said that a man in his 50's, from southwest of Atlanta, was taken to hospital after claiming to have drunk 16 ounces of bleach on Saturday. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that he was later moved to a psychiatric ward before being released.
"I don’t know very many patients who will take 16 ounces, but then again, it is a psych history patient," he told the publication.
The following day, a man in his 30's, also from Atlanta, apparently consumed the cleaning product Pine-Sol, as well as mouthwash, beer and painkillers. He has since been discharged.
This comes after Donald Trump made several controversial remarks regarding how disinfectant and UV light could be used to fight the COVID-19 at his news briefing on Thursday - assertions that have since been widely condemned by the medical community.
"And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning? So it'd be interesting to check that," Trump said.
Trump later clarified that he was being sarcastic after his comments were denounced by the medical community for being irresponsible and dangerous. "I was asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you,” he claimed. “Disinfectant for doing this, maybe on the hands, would work. I was asking…when they use disinfectant it goes away in less than a minute."
It is not known if these incidents are related to the president's remarks.
Watch as Donald Trump brands a reporter a "disgrace" at a press briefing:It's been reported that some poison control centers saw a spike in calls after Trump's assertions, and several agencies, including Lysol's parent company Reckitt Benckiser, have issued statements on social media to warn citizens against ingesting such products.
