China, pummeled by an outbreak, adds Pfizer’s antiviral pills to its treatment protocol

 China has revised the country’s pandemic guidelines to include the use of antiviral pills made by Pfizer, Paxlovid, as the country scrambles to contain its biggest outbreak since the early days of the COVID19 pandemic.


China has revised the country’s pandemic guidelines to include the use of antiviral pills made by Pfizer, as the country scrambles to contain its biggest outbreak since the early days of the pandemic.

The country’s medical products regulator last month approved Pfizer’s Paxlovid treatment for emergency use. The government’s move to include it in its Covid-19 treatment guidelines was announced this week.

The authorities have had to modify their policies to accommodate a rising number of cases in more than two dozen provinces. According to the latest guidelines, people who test positive for the virus and have only mild symptoms will no longer be required to be hospitalized, but should instead stay in centralized isolation facilities.

The health commission also shortened the quarantine period for patients who have been discharged from the hospital or isolation facilities. Earlier, the government approved the use of rapid antigen tests by the public to help detect cases more quickly.

China is enduring its biggest surge this month since the coronavirus first emerged in the city of Wuhan more than two years ago.

The country is one of the last holdouts of a strategy that aims to completely eradicate the virus.

“The epidemic in some areas is surging rapidly, and the risk of spread and spillover in the society is relatively high,” Lei Zhenglong, the deputy director of the National Health Commission’s Bureau of Disease Control and Prevention, said on Tuesday.

The surge in cases has prompted the Chinese authorities to lock down residents, close factories and stop truck traffic, snarling already frayed supply chains. On Wednesday, Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics firm that assembles Apple’s iPhones, said that it had resumed some production in the city of Shenzhen at factory compounds where employees live on the grounds.


Read more at:

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/03/16/world/covid-19-mandates-cases-vaccine#china-adds-pfizers-antiviral-pills-to-its-treatment-protocol-and-other-global-news








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