HCMC uses Molnupiravir for treating Covid-19 patients at home

According to Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long, the Ministry of Health and the Department of Health of Ho Chi Minh City start using the experimental antiviral drug Molnupiravir to treat Covid-19 patients with mild-symptom from August 27.

HCMC uses Molnupiravir for treating Covid-19 patients at home  ảnh 1 Mr. Long (first, L) encourages city dwellers and frontline health care workers (Photo: SGGP)
He said this while inspecting the Covid-19 prevention and control task in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 8 yesterday. He added that Molnupiravir is an antiviral drug being developed by Merck & Co and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics for the treatment of non-hospitalized Covid-19 patients.
Presently, Molnupiravir 400mg tablets are being manufactured by Stellapharm Vietnam which promised to provide 2.3 million pills for free-of-charge treatment of 116,000 locally-infected Covid-19 patients in HCMC.
As soon as bags of antiretroviral drugs are brought to districts, health care workers of mobile medical stations and grassroots medical teams will distribute bags of medicine to people infected by Covid-19. Each medicine bag contains anti-viral drugs, drugs to support the treatment of symptoms (fever, cough), anti-blood-clotting drugs, Vitamin C. Teams giving bags of drugs should emphasize that there are antiretroviral drugs in the medicine bag so that people feel assured, said Health Minister Long.
HCMC uses Molnupiravir for treating Covid-19 patients at home  ảnh 2 Mr. Long inspects how residents follow Covid-19 prevention regulation in District 8 (Photo: SGGP)
A representative of Ward 5, District 8 said that up to now, there have been 1,312 Covid-19 infections cases, accounting for about 2.7 percent of the total population of the ward. He added that the ward currently has 48 red zones, 42 green zones, revealing that measures to prevent and control the epidemic are being implemented drastically and synchronously.
HCMC uses Molnupiravir for treating Covid-19 patients at home  ảnh 3 Health Minister Nguyen Thanh Long checks medicine support bags for residents (Photo: SGGP)
Regarding taking samples for Covid-19 testing in the residential community, the local representative said that the ward has organized five mobile testing teams, each comprising five members. Members of mobile testing teams will come to each household to guide people to perform the test themselves at home. Anyone who are positive will be given medicine, advice, and instructions for daily health monitoring at home.
At the checkpoints, Minister of Health Nguyen Thanh Long emphasized that the Party, Government as well as the health sector are very drastic in the fight against the epidemic in Ho Chi Minh City in particular and other provinces in general. At the same time, the Party, the government and local administration also pay attention to providing the best care for people's life and health.
He emphasized tightening preventive measures against the pandemic; therefore, local administrations must regularly visit each residential quarter and each alley to make sure that everyone strictly follows the Covid-19 prevention regulations.
He encouraged city dwellers and frontline health care workers and other forces.

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