The World Health Organization strongly recommended using Pfizer’s Covid-19 pill Paxlovid for patients with mild Covid-19 infection who are still at a high risk of hospitalization.

The WHO also gave a conditional recommendation to remdesivir for the same group of patients with mild Covid-19. Previously, the WHO had recommended it against such patients.

The WHO’s Guideline Development Group (GDG), consisting of experts, announced the recommendations in an article published by BMJ, a British medical journal, on Thursday.

Among mild Covid-19 patients, the WHO recommended Paxlovid for the unvaccinated, the elderly, and the immunocompromised because they had a high risk of hospitalization.

The GDG experts said Paxlovid had an excellent effect on preventing the high-risk patient group’s hospitalization and the drug had fewer potential harms than another oral Covid-19 treatment, molnupiravir. In addition, as Paxlovid is easier to administer than intravenous injections, they said it is a good option for patients.

The latest recommendations were based on two randomized, controlled trials involving 3,100 patients with Covid-19. In the studies, Paxlovid reduced the risk of hospitalization and showed nearly zero risk of adverse events, the GDG said.

However, the GDG did not recommend Paxlovid for Covid-19 patients with a lower chance of progressing to serious disease. In addition, it did not recommend patients with severe or critical Covid-19 who did not have clinical trial data.

The WHO also made a conditional recommendation to use remdesivir to treat patients with non-severe Covid-19 who are at high risk of hospitalization.

In November 2020, the WHO said it did not recommend remdesivir for Covid-19 patients.

However, based on the newest data from five clinical trials, the WHO gave remdesivir a conditional recommendation.

"Antiviral drugs should be administered as early as possible in the course of the disease," the WHO said in a statement.

Also, the WHO advised against the use of convalescent plasma, anthelmintic drug ivermectin, and malarial drug hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19 patients, regardless of severity.

For severe or critical Covid-19 patients, the WHO strongly recommended interleukin-6 (IL-6) receptor blockers or arthritis drug baricitinib added to corticosteroids.