The Biden administration has claimed to be taking steps to make Pfizer’s Paxlovid treatment more widely available. The initiative comes amid an increase in the number of infections in the country
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By
Soledad CedroFrom Miami, Florida, United States< /i>
FILE PHOTO. Pill for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Paxlovid
The White House announced today that they are taking measures so that the treatment with antiviral pills against COVID 19 developed by the Pfizer laboratory, Paxlovid , be more accessible to the population.Studies indicate that the effectiveness of this treatment to avoid hospitalizations or deaths as a result of the virus is around 90 percent. Although the United States was the main buyer of this product -which works particularly well with the Omicron variant and its sub-variants-, getting it is not always easy.
The federal government plans to open COVID 19 treatment centers across the country. The first opened today in the state of Rhode Island, where those who test positive for COVID 19 and belong to risk groups, they are immediately offered to take a box with Paxlovid pills for five days. In the coming weeks, centers of the same type will open in Massachusetts and New York, all places that have seen an increase in the number of infections in recent weeks. In the same way, in two weeks, a consignment of medications will be sent to Minnesota.
The country’s medical authorities have also provided information about the interaction of Paxlovid with other medications, to that doctors determine in which cases it is convenient to take this medicine and in which cases it is not.
Pfizer’s Covid pill, marketed under the name Paxlovid, “makes a difference” by limiting the number of hospitalizations and deaths, at a time when the United States is experiencing a new epidemic wave, a senior White House official stressed on Wednesday
Although the federal government has reached an agreement with Pfizer to receive more batches of Paxlovid, there are still not enough treatments for all those infected, so the criterion remains a priority for those over 65 and those with pre-existing diseases who are more likely to develop an illness severe with COVID-19.
It is true that cases have skyrocketed throughout the country, but the number of people hospitalized and the number of deaths have remained stable in the last eight weeks. Some experts attribute this to the high number of people vaccinated in the population, and to the fact that the country is already giving the fourth dose of the vaccine if people want to get it.
< b>Since last March, the number of cases has quadrupled in the United States, going from an average of 25,000 infected per day to an average of 105,000 infected per day. Since the beginning of the pandemic, once Once infections are detected, deaths usually begin to be seen within three weeks. In this case, the number of deaths as a result of the virus has consistently been declining with a current average of less than 300 deaths per day.
The coordinator of COVID 19 for the White House, Dr. Ashish Jha, has indicated that it is the first time since the beginning of the pandemic that one indicator does not grow with the other, which is interpreted as a victory against the virus.< /p>
“The remarkable thing about the rise in the number of cases that we have seen in recent weeks is that serious infections have not increased, let alone deaths. COVID is no longer as lethal as it was a year ago”, Dr. Jha told the press, who credits this advance to vaccination but fundamentally to greater access to Paxlovid treatment.