Recent studies claim that the anti-Malaria drug chloroquine and its metabolite hydroxychloroquine, has an effect against Coronavirus. Chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine increases the endosomal pH and interferes with virus particle delivery into host cells.
Several studies have reported that Zinc mediate antiviral effects against certain viruses. Zinc interferes with the Coronavirus transcription affecting the ability of the virus to replicates. Increased intracellular Zinc concentrations inhibit RNA-dependent RNA polymerases and other proteins essential for the completion of different phases of the Coronavirus life cycle. Extracellular zinc requires an active transporter to pass across the cell membrane. Besides direct antiviral effects, Chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine are zinc ionophores and specifically target extracellular zinc to intracellular lysosomes, thus providing Zinc with the transport mechanism.
Relevant Links
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4182877/
https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202004.0124/v1
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0109180