The World Health Organization has temporarily suspended tests on hydroxychloroquine in its Covid-19 drug trials pending more data because of safety concerns.

The steering committee decided to suspend enrollment to that arm of the so-called Solidarity trials, WHO officials said Monday.

The drug has been repeatedly endorsed by world leaders including Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro and US President Donald Trump — who yesterday said he had just finished a course of the medicine, which he claimed to have been taking as a preventative measure.

The move comes after a study published in The Lancet medical journal said that the use of the drug increased the risk of death by 34 percent and a 137 percent increased risk of serious heart arrhythmias.

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“It’s important to continue to gather evidence on the efficacy and safety of hydroxychloroquine,” WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan said at a press briefing in Geneva.

“We want to use it if it’s safe and efficacious, reduces mortality, reduces the length of hospitalization without increasing adverse events.”

The studies may resume if data warrants, Mike Ryan, head of the WHO’s health emergencies program, said at a briefing.

There’s no signals from the Solidarity trials that indicate any problem and the decision was made out of an “abundance of caution,” Ryan said.

The safety monitoring board will meet again and the decision will be reviewed in the next week or two, Swaminathan also said.