Free Republic

OTTAWA — Health Canada has approved Paxlovid, Pfizer’s oral antiviral treatment for COVID-19 that has been touted as a way to ease pressure on health-care systems overburdened by rising case counts. According to an authorization posted on the regulator’s web page Monday morning, the treatment has been approved for adults with mild to moderate forms of the illness who are at high risk of developing more severe outcomes. Because safety and efficacy data was not submitted to Health Canada on the use of the drug on younger age groups, Paxlovid has not been approved for pediatric patients. The pill is...

PUTRAJAYA: The anti-malarial drug chloroquine has shown its efficacy in the treatment of Covid-19 patients since the first wave of the outbreak in Malaysia, the director-general of health, Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, said. He said the drugs’ anti-inflammatory properties were effective in treating Covid-19 which causes inflammation of the lower respiratory tract. Noor Hisham said a similar anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine and a combination of antiviral drugs lopinavir and ritonavir had also been used in the treatment of patients in Malaysia. There had been promising results but further research was still required. Noor Hisham said the number of deaths from Covid-19...