Britain has approved COVID-19 antiviral pill jointly developed by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics.
Thus, Britain becomes the first country in the world to take the move.
“Today is a historic day for our country. The UK is now the first country in the world to approve an antiviral,” said health minister Sajid Javid.
“This will be a game-changer for the most vulnerable and the immunosuppressed, who will soon be able to receive the ground-breaking treatment,” he added.
Only recently-infected COVID-19 patients can take Merck’s molnupiravir twice a day, for five days.
Treatments to tackle the pandemic, which has killed more than 5.2 million people worldwide, have so far focused mainly on vaccines.
Other options are generally only given after a patient has been hospitalised.
WHO Warns of Rising Deaths in Britain, Europe
This came as the World Heath Organisation (WHO) warned that Europe could see ‘another half million Covid-19 deaths’ by February.
The rising number of cases of Covid-19 in Europe is of “grave concern”. The region could see another half a million deaths by early next year, the WHO said in a statement issued on Thursday.
With 78 million cases in the WHO’s European region—which spans 53 countries and territories and includes several nations in Central Asia—the cumulative toll now exceeded that of South East Asia, the Eastern Mediterranean region, the Western Pacific, and Africa combined, the organisation said.
“We are, once again, at the epicentre,” WHO Europe director Hans Kluge told a press conference.
Kluge noted that the “current pace of transmission across the 53 countries of the European Region is of grave concern”.
According to “one reliable projection” the current trajectory would mean “another half a million Covid-19 deaths” by February, Kluge added.
