Intervention
The interventions (2.5 g vitamin C or placebo) was added to 100 ml of normal saline and administered over 20–30 min 8 hourly until the attending clinical team changed from intravenous antimicrobials to oral therapy. The initial supplier of the intravenous therapy was ASCOR L-500, McGuff Pharmaceuticals Inc, Santa Ana, CA, USA, but this became unavailable during lockdown and was changed to Sodium Ascorbate Solution (Biological Therapies, Braeside, VIC, Australia). The intravenous placebo was normal saline. Both the vitamin C and placebo tablets were sourced from Tishcon Corp, NY, USA and were identical in appearance.