U.S. donates COVID-19 pill to treat 1,000 patients

The United States government has donated Paxlovid, a COVID-19 treatment pill to Guyana, providing enough medication to treat 1,000 patients.

The Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony received the pills on Wednesday and said it will further boost the country’s response to the virus.

Paxlovid, an oral antiviral pill developed by Pfizer, is approved for persons aged 12 and older.

“If we give you Paxlovid from the time we test you and you are positive, within five days you see a remarkable change and that is why this is so important and we are very happy to get doses for 1000 people,” Dr Anthony said at the simple handing over ceremony at the Ministry of Health, Brickdam Georgetown office.

While acknowledging the role of vaccines in the fight against COVID-19, Dr. Anthony highlighted the evolving nature of the virus, with the emergence of new variants like the JN.1 variant. He also noted that Guyana also has the capacity to test for new variants through gene sequencing.

“That is another capacity building that we have had through our work with Harvard, they have been able to build capacity of our National Public Health Reference Lab and we have a gene sequencer, so we have been able to take samples from patients and do our own sequencing so we can confirm that we have JN1 in circulation in Guyana.”

Dr Anthony said even though conducting gene sequencing locally is commendable, it is important to effectively address emerging COVID-19 variants, and this is where Paxlovid plays a crucial role.

“A drug that has been proven very effective in the treatment and management of patients is Paxlovid,” Dr Anthony said.

Meanwhile, according to Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Guyana, Adrienne Galanek, in addition to the Paxlovid donation, the United States has provided 354,660 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, supported the expansion of COVID-19 vaccination coverage, strengthened the healthcare system, and offered technical assistance through supply chain and health information specialists.

“Over the past two decades the United States government has provided more than $140 billion in global health assistance, we are the world’s largest contributor to international response to COVID-19.”