inclusion criteria: - symptomatic and laboratory-confirmed diagnosis of covid-19. - age ≥18 years and ≤45 years, male and non-pregnant female - identified within 72 hours of testing positive on rt pcr. - able to give informed consent to stay in institutional care and undergo 3 times collection of throat and nasal swabs over 7-day period; day 1, day 3 and day 5 since randomization.

inclusion criteria: - symptomatic and laboratory-confirmed diagnosis of covid-19. - age ≥18 years and ≤45 years, male and non-pregnant female - identified within 72 hours of testing positive on rt pcr. - able to give informed consent to stay in institutional care and undergo 3 times collection of throat and nasal swabs over 7-day period; day 1, day 3 and day 5 since randomization.