• Pills have been seen as a potentially huge step in ending the pandemic.
• Government must secure more funds to avoid shortages of the antiviral pill once it is introduced in Zambia.
• Inequality in access to COVID-19 vaccines would again leave low- and middle-income countries pushed to the end of the queue.
Medical for Quality Health Care (MQHZ) in Zambia has advised government to secure more funds to avoid shortages of COVID-19 antiviral pill once it is introduced in Zambia.
Organization Media Advocacy Director Francis Kangwa told Money FM News that the inequality in accessing Covid-19 vaccines leave low income countries like Zambia pushed to the limit.
Mr. Kangwa however supported the introduction of COVID-19 antiviral pill called PAXLOVID for patients with milder forms of the disease.
“We are extremely concerned that the inequality in access seen with COVID-19 vaccines would again leave low- and middle-income countries like Zambia pushed to the end of the queue.”
“If government through the Ministry of Health introduced Paxlovid in the country, it will be a satisfying move by the Ministry, because COVID-19 pills have been seen as a potentially huge step in ending the pandemic as they can be taken at home, rather than in a hospital,” Mr. Kangwa said.
He also urged citizens to prevent the outset of a full-fledged fifth wave of the pandemic by adhering to the prescribed health guidelines.
In the coming weeks, Ministry of Health will be giving individuals infected with COVID-19 a new antivirus drug called PAXLOVID, which stops the SARS-CoV-2 virus from multiplying and reduces the progression of COVID disease.
By reducing the amount of the multiplying virus, the individual with COVID has a reduced chance of transmitting the virus to others.
This drug is approved by the World Health Organisation WHO and is being administered in Europe and America.
According to the WHO, the antiviral pill has shown the reduction in hospitalizations and deaths among at-risk people by almost 90 percent
