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A new Antivirals Taskforce has been launched by the government to identify treatments for UK patients who have been exposed to COVID-19 to stop the infection spreading and speed up recovery time.
The taskforce will search for the most promising novel antiviral medicines that can be taken at home and support their development through clinical trials to ensure they can be rapidly rolled out to patients as early as the autumn.
The taskforce will also look at opportunities to onshore the manufacture of antiviral treatments.
The aim is to have at least 2 effective treatments this year, either in a tablet or capsule form, that the public can take at home following a positive COVID-19 test or exposure to someone with the virus.
DRUG DEAL
Boris Johnson reveals plans to treat Covid with new drugs at home by autumn – to combat third wave and new variants
20 Apr 2021, 17:00
Updated: 20 Apr 2021, 18:17
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NEW antiviral drugs could be given to Covid patients at home to combat at third wave this autumn, Boris Johnson revealed today.
The Prime Minister told a Downing Street news conference the pills would help to “continue on our path towards freedom”.
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People could one day take a tablet at home to prevent severe Covid illness by autumn, Boris Johnson announcedCredit: PA
A new Government group has been tasked with finding such a drug in a “supercharged search” ahead of an expected third outbreak.
Workers Revolutionary Party
March in Tower hamlets against the closure of GP surgeries – US privateer centene is taking over 37 GP pactices in London
A PROTEST against GP practices being taken over by US health insurance giant Centene Corporation – branded as ‘the accelerating privatisation of the NHS by stealth’ by the union Unite – is being held in London tomorrow (22 April).
Campaigners, including members of Doctors in Unite (DiU), will be staging a socially-distanced protest outside Centene’s UK subsidiary Operose that recently took over the privately-owned AT Medics, set up in 2004 by six NHS GPs, and which runs 37 GP practices across London.
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Care home staff could be forced to get the Covid-19 jab before they are allowed to work – with the latest figures showing nearly 2,000 have yet to be vaccinated in Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire.
The government has launched a five-week consultation on whether vaccination should be made a condition of deployment for care home workers, due to take-up rates still lagging behind other priority groups.
New Antivirals Taskforce could identify and deploy innovative COVID-19 treatments as early as autumn
Treatments could be taken at home after a positive test or exposure to COVID-19 to reduce transmission and speed up recovery
Drugs could help combat a rise in infections or new variants over the winter flu season
A new Antivirals Taskforce has been launched by the government to identify treatments for UK patients who have been exposed to COVID-19 to stop the infection spreading and speed up recovery time.
The taskforce will search for the most promising novel antiviral medicines that can be taken at home and support their development through clinical trials to ensure they can be rapidly rolled out to patients as early as the autumn.