He said that the Pfizer-produced drug has been used by all government hospitals to treat Category 2 and 3 patients with mild to average symptoms since April 15, four days after the first shipment of 48,000 boxes of the pills arrived in Malaysia.
Chronic patients were prioritised for the treatment and as of June 5, 1,364 patients had recovered with no side effects detected.
“This treatment has been proven to be safe and effective in reducing the effects of Covid-19 infection and patients’ mortality rate,” said Khairy in a statement released today. “Therefore, we will expand this drug’s availability to (Covid-19) patients in private hospitals soon.”
He added that while the prescription of the drug is still free in these hospitals, the patients are still subject to service consultation fees and other charges fixed by the hospitals.
Meanwhile, the Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia (APHM) said that specialists in these hospitals will follow the guidelines provided by the health ministry on the prescription of Paxlovid.
“We will be able to treat Covid-19 more effectively, and patients seeking treatment for Covid-19 in private hospitals will have better recovery and less probability of getting into Category 4 and 5 (of infection),” said the association’s president Dr Kuljit Singh.
Meanwhile, Khairy also said that the health ministry would start administering antibody drug Evusheld to chronic Covid-19 patients soon. He said research has found that the antibody drug will protect recipients from Covid-19 infection for six months after inoculation.
“For the time being, Evusheld will be provided in government hospitals and it can be used as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for those who have not been infected by Covid-19 but face high risks of infection,” he said.
This antibody can only be prescribed by specialists to those who are 12 years old and above, weigh more than 40kg and are moderately or severely immunocompromised, thus they are unable to get the immunity level required from the Covid-19 vaccines.
Evusheld can also be administered to those who have not been fully vaccinated for health reasons or have experienced severe side effects of vaccination. It will be prescribed through two inoculations of two different drugs – Txagevimab and Cilgavimab – which will be administered consecutively.
Khairy added that the drug has to be administered at least two weeks after vaccination.