Quebec hospitals to start administering new Pfizer drug to high-risk COVID-19 patients
CBC
Quebec will begin receiving the sought-after antiviral drug Paxlovid, but not quickly enough to ease the heavy burden that the latest wave of COVID-19 is imposing on hospitals, which are readying more radical ways to prioritize patient care.
About 6,300 doses of the drug will arrive in the province this week, with thousands more set to arrive in the coming month.
The medication developed by Pfizer, lauded for its potential reduce hospitalizations from the virus, was approved for emergency use by Health Canada yesterday.
The drug's arrival is being welcomed by health officials in Quebec, as hospitals have been overwhelmed by the number of COVID-19 patients infected by the highly contagious Omicron variant.
At an update on the pandemic situation in the province Tuesday, Health Minister Christian Dubé said the treatment isn't expected to reduce the pressure on hospital beds immediately.
"We are at the end of the rope," Dubé said. "Our best weapon remains vaccination."
Dubé said it's still too early to relax pandemic restrictions, given the state hospitals are in.
Hospitalizations in Quebec due to COVID-19 remain high, at 3,417 reported Tuesday, but they are beginning to increase at a slower rate, said interim Public Health Director Dr. Luc Boileau.
At 3 p.m., the chair of Quebec's COVID-19 ethics committee, Marie-Ève Bouthillier, and other senior health officials will outline their latest contingency plan for managing patient care.
Associate Deputy Health Minister Lucie Opatrny said that plan includes ways to treat some patients from home, such as providing oxygen machines to patients with milder symptoms.
"It's about if we can't provide all patients with A+ care, how can we slightly reduce that standard," while still caring for everyone, Opatrny said. "How can we do more with what we have?"
She said a team of 30 experts has come up with the plan.
Opatrny said the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal has already been experimenting with providing some COVID outpatients with oxygen.
According to health officials, Paxlovid will be used to treat those who have mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19 but risk developing a severe form of the disease.
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