The government will begin to provide oral Covid-19 treatments from Friday amid growing expectations about their effects as the “game-changer.”
According to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters, Paxlovid, a Covid-19 oral treatment developed by Pfizer, will arrive in Korea on Thursday, and health authorities will start prescribing and administering the treatments the following day.
An additional 10,000 doses of Paxlovid are expected to arrive soon, and the country will receive 31,000 of the 762,000 Paxlovid contracted with Pfizer by the end of this month.
"Based on a simple calculation, we will be able to administer the drug to more than 1,000 people a day," Vice Minister of Health and Welfare Ryu Keun-hyuck said in a joint briefing.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) expects that the amount imported this time will be sufficient to treat those over 65 years old and immunocompromised people among the mild and moderate Covid-19 patients currently receiving treatment at home or community treatment centers.
The health authorities said they would use the pills for mild and moderate patients with a high risk of progression to severe cases within five days of the symptom onset, excluding asymptomatic patients.
Considering that medical staff can intensively manage patients and give existing treatments to inpatients at hospitals and nursing hospitals, the government has decided to supply therapy to patients receiving treatment at home or community treatment centers.
At-home patients will be given Covid-19 pills from local health authorities or pharmacies. Patients at community treatment centers will receive them from medical teams.
Medical workers will check the patient's daily treatment intake. If any abnormal symptoms occur, physicians will conduct face-to-face treatment.
As there are many medicines that patients should not take with the Covid-19 pills, the government plans to thoroughly manage prescription history through related systems, such as the drug use review (DUR) service.
The government will provide the treatment free of charge regardless of the inoculation history of the confirmed patient.
"The government will provide treatment according to symptoms regardless of vaccination records and free of charge," Ministry of Health and Welfare Spokesman Son Young-rae said. "Since the severity and fatality of unvaccinated patients are much higher, the government will sufficiently provide oral treatment to unvaccinated patients."
He added that Korea is introducing oral Covid-19 treatments relatively faster than many other countries and expects it will slow the spread of infection of confirmed patients and help the country respond better to the Omicron variant.
On Wednesday, new coronavirus cases bounced back above 4,000 for the first time in five days.
The KDCA confirmed 4,388 new Covid-19 infections, including 4,007 local infections, raising the total caseload to 674,868. Fifty-two more people died of Covid-19, lifting the death toll to 6,166, with a fatality rate of 0.91 percent.
Critically ill Covid-19 patients stayed below 1,000 for the ninth consecutive day after the KDCA confirmed 749 critically ill Covid-19 patients.
Amid concerns over the spread of the Omicron variant, the government extended the social distancing rules for two weeks through Jan. 16, including a four-person cap on private gatherings across the nation and a 9 p.m. business hour curfew on cafes and restaurants.
Health authorities have also introduced a six-month validity period for the vaccine pass required to enter restaurants, theaters, cram schools, and other indoor multipurpose facilities.
The government has added department stores, large discount store chains, large shopping malls, and large bookstores to the subjected facilities, with a one-week grace period allowed for them until Jan. 16.
Starting Monday, the government will slap fines of up to 1.5 million won ($1,250) on businesses if they fail to abide by the vaccine pass system.
The government has vaccinated 44,411,026 people – 11,117,504 with the AstraZeneca vaccine, 24,972,455 with Pfizer's vaccine, 1,511,068 with Janssen's vaccine, 6,790,105 with Moderna's vaccine – with the first shot of the vaccine up 19,894 from the previous day. In addition, it has provided more than 21 million booster shots to older adults and other vulnerable groups.
Some 84.2 percent of Koreans were fully vaccinated, 86.5 percent had received their first shots, and 42.5 percent had received booster shots.