Ahmed Aboulenein

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) –Use of Pfizer Inc (NYSE)’s COVID-19 antiviral oral treatment Paxlovid has seen a 315% increase in price over the past week, according to Tuesday’s U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The move comes as authorities try to manage unexpectedly high demand.

According to a senior health official, nearly 115,000 doses of the pill were given in the first week. According to the White House, it is aiming to make Paxlovid more accessible by increasing access at all locations.

The official said on a phone call that “in recent weeks we’ve gone from approximately 20,000 sites with Paxlovid down to roughly 35,000” and added that 88% of people lived within 5 to 8 miles of a site.

Out of more than 2,000,000 courses, 668 954 courses were taken.

Paxlovid has been approved for high-risk COVID-19 patients. You should take it for at least five days starting shortly after the onset of symptoms.

Providers ordered almost 1.8 million courses of molnupiravir, Merck & Co’s rival oral antiviral developed along with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, and 230,257 have been administered so far, the official added.

HHS data shows that these numbers pale in comparison to the overall supply. There are currently over 3.3 million Paxlovid course and close to 3.2million molnupiravir courses.

The official stated that “the number of cases dropped as the Paxlovid supply was increasing.” He said, “We didn’t see substantial uptake until now we have been able to push harder for the supply and also start to see cases rise.”

The United States is averaging nearly 97,000 new cases a day, up from about 73,000 a week ago, according to a Reuters tally https://graphics.reuters.com/HEALTH-CORONAVIRUS/USA-TRENDS/dgkvlgkrkpb. Since hitting an all-time low of 33,000 new infections per day in March, cases have steadily increased.

Bloomberg News reports that Apple Inc (NASDAQ) has delayed its plans to require employees to work remotely three days per week because of rising instances.

NEW WAVE

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Tuesday’s estimate was that half of all infections from last week stemmed from Omicron variant BA.2.12.1. It has been rising since mid-April and is now the most dominant strain on much of the East Coast.

According to population data, New York’s Northeast saw the largest increase in new cases during the seven-day period. It was led by Connecticut and Rhode Island as well as Massachusetts.

A Reuters tally shows that nearly 20,000 people are now being treated in hospitals across the nation. This is up from 16.500 just last week. From a low point of 12,000 in April, hospitalizations have been rising steadily.

According to population, New York, Delaware and Maine are the three states that have the highest number of hospitalizations.

New York City’s COVID-19 alert level was raised to extremely high Tuesday by its health department. It strongly recommends wearing masks indoors and out in the open for anyone over 65.

As a slow indicator, deaths have remained relatively steady at an average daily rate of between 300 and 500. Since the outbreak of the pandemic, COVID-19 has claimed the lives of more than one million Americans.

Tuesday saw the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approve the administration of BioNTech and Pfizer’s booster vaccine for children aged five to eleven. This means that anyone over five years of age is now eligible for a third shot.

According to the official, around 360 million coronavirus test kits have been shipped to households across the country. A third round of orders has also been opened on COVIDtest.gov on Monday in order to accommodate additional requests.