President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday that Americans who test positive for COVID-19 will be able to obtain antiviral medications for free at local pharmacies and community hospitals as part of a new initiative that will begin this month. “We’re introducing the ‘Test to Treat’ effort so folks can get screened at a drugstore, and if they’re infected, they can still get antiviral medicines right away at no cost,” Biden stated during his State of the Union address on Tuesday.
According to a White House official, the government will open hundreds of locations countrywide this month in CVS, Walgreens, and Kroger, as well as community health centres. Next week, Americans will be able to obtain freer Covid tests through the government’s website.
Each transaction entitles a house to four complimentary Covid tests. Beginning next week, families will be limited to two orders based on their residence address. Pfizer is trying to provide 1 million courses of its Covid therapy tablet, Paxlovid, this month, according to the president. During clinical studies, Paxlovid was 89 per cent good at stopping hospitalisation in persons who were in danger of experiencing the serious disease.
Biden stated that the United States has entered a new phase of the epidemic, with incidences of serious disease at their lowest possible level since July. The omicron Covid variant wreaked havoc on the country in December and January, generating an extraordinary surge of infection that drove several hospitals to their breaking point. According to the president, most Americans are now safe to go about their daily lives without wearing masks, according to revised recommendations provided by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention last week. More of the country, according to Biden, will also satisfy CDC requirements to become mask-free in the next two weeks.
During his speech, Biden also revealed that commencing next week, US residents will be able to obtain an additional package of free at-home COVID-19 exams. It was confirmed earlier in the week that over half of the 500 million free tests made available by the Biden government had gone unfulfilled. The Test to Treat Venture would also include additional steps to raise public awareness about the advancement of different treatment options and the significance of initiating them as soon as complications arise; focus on providing additional data about these experimental therapies to healthcare professionals, and disseminate antiviral medications straightforwardly to long-term treatment centres.
