"Raise the prescription rate for high-risk patients to 50%"

...from the current 20% for oral COVID-19 treatments

Gi-Seok Jeong, “Precision quarantine to reduce progression to severe disease and death difficult at this rate”

Experts have pointed out that high-risk patients with COVID-19 should be first administered oral treatments such as Paxlovid or Lagevrio etc.

 

before hospitalization.

 

In other words, if the prescription rate of oral COVID-19 treatments remains in the current 20% range, experts believe that the prescriptions will not be sufficient to prevent the increase in severe disease and deaths amid the resurgence of COVID-19.

 

Therefore, the experts believe that the prescription rate in high-risk COVID-19 patients needs to be increased to at least 30% and to at most 50%.

 

Gi-Seok Jeong, Director-General of Special Response of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasure Headquarters stated so at the regular briefing held on the 26th.

 

Jeong added that there is no obstacle to providing prompt medical treatment for COVID-19 patients as over 10,000 one-stop medical institutions nationwide are in operation, and 1 out of 3 local hospitals and clinics are providing one-stop treatments.

 

However, pointing out that in 25% of the medical institutions the progress to hospitalization is not smooth, Jeong expressed the view that this problem should be resolved quickly, and treatment be administered during the waiting period prior to hospitalization.

 

Jeong said, “Smooth progress to hospitalization is of course important, but regardless of this, the high-risk group should unconditionally be administered prescription drugs.

 

The prescription rate has been improved much, but the rate should not remain at the current 20% range." “The rate has improved much, from 4% last Spring to 20%, but the statistics need to be improved so that the rate is improved to 1 in 2 or 1 in 3 patients receiving prescriptions to implement the targeted, precision quarantine for high-risk patients that we hope to achieve.

 

Achieving this goal will lead to a gradual decrease in the severity or fatality rate in COVID-19 patients in the future.”