Lysol and Dettol maker Reckitt Benckiser on Friday asked people not to use disinfectant in the hope of treating Covid-19. United States President Donald Trump had on Thursday bizarrely suggested that disinfectants could be injected into patients to treat Covid-19.

“Under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body [through injection, ingestion or any other route],” Reckitt Benckiser said. The company said that due to “recent speculation and social media activity”, it had been asked whether internal usage of disinfectants may combat the Covid-19 infection.

Trump’s suggestion came at the White House’s daily press conference on Covid-19, after Bill Bryan, the acting undersecretary of science and technology for the Department of Homeland Security, presented the results of a United States government research indicating that the coronavirus seemed to become weak after exposure to heat and sunlight. The study also showed that bleach could kill the coronavirus in saliva or respiratory fluids within five minutes.

“So, supposing we hit the body with a tremendous – whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful –light,” Trump said. “And I think you [Bryan] said that hasn’t been checked but you’re going to test it. And then I said, supposing you brought the light inside of the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. And I think you said you’re going to test that too. Sounds interesting.”

The American president then suggested that Covid-19 patients could be injected with disinfectant. “And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute,” he said. “And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning?”

There was outrage in the medical community following Trump’s remarks. Doctors warned that injecting disinfectant could be fatal. “This notion of injecting or ingesting any type of cleansing product into the body is irresponsible and it’s dangerous,” pulmonologist Dr Vin Gupta told NBC News.

The US Food and Drug Administration warned people against drinking the chemicals in disinfectants.

The United States, which is in a complete lockdown, has so far reported over 8,80,000 cases of the coronavirus, and over 50,000 people have died, according to the Johns Hopkins University.