Speed Key For Antiviral To Work: Cowling

A leading epidemiologist said on Wednesday that the SAR must ensure that a groundbreaking anti-viral treatment gets to Covid-19 patients as quickly as possible if it's to have the maximum effect in reducing hospital admissions and deaths.

The Hospital Authority is rolling out Paxlovid for vulnerable Covid patients from Wednesday, with those showing mild symptoms given the pill at designated clinics, care homes and public hospitals.

Speaking on RTHK's Hong Kong Today programme, Benjamin Cowling from the University of Hong Kong's School of Public Health, said the treatment could substantially reduce severe cases.

"It looks very promising from the clinical trials," he told RTHK's Vicky Wong. "If it's given early, as early as possible, there's an indication that it could substantially reduce the risk of severe disease."

"Now if it's given to people after a few days of illness, after a week of illness, and they go to the hospital in a serious condition already, it won't work so well. It really has to be given very, very early."

The SAR has purchased an undisclosed number of Paxlovid pills from its manufacturer, Pfizer. It's also bought supplies of another antiviral, Molnupiravir, which has shown lower effectiveness in trials but which may be suitable for patients who can't receive Paxlovid, such as those with kidney problems.

Cowling said it's not time to relax social distancing measures despite falling case numbers.

"Thankfully the case numbers are coming down. They're coming down slowly, but I think they will continue to come down. We know there've already been a lot of infections. There's a large number of confirmed cases and, of course, many more infections that were not confirmed," he said.

"So we know that this epidemic is in decline, the numbers will continue to go down to a low level but not quite yet, so I don't think it's a good time yet to relax the measures that we have in place. Let's wait until the numbers get a little bit lower."

Hong Kong reported 27,765 new cases on Tuesday.