City Health Officer Ashley Lopez said the donation made up half of the 2,000 bottles ordered by the city that arrived here on Jan. 26.
DAVAO CITY, Davao del Sur, Philippines — Amid the continued rise of COVID-19 cases in the Davao Region, the city government here has donated 40,000 capsules of the oral antiviral drug molnupiravir to Southern Philippines Medical Center (SPMC), the region’s biggest hospital, to boost treatment for mild and moderate coronavirus disease cases.
City Health Officer Ashley Lopez said the donation made up half of the 2,000 bottles ordered by the city that arrived here on Jan. 26.
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The donation could treat for free around a thousand patients who exhibited mild to moderate symptoms of COVID-19, said Lopez, who handed the medicines to Dr. Ricardo Audan, SPMC chief.
The remaining bottles would likely go to the city’s temporary treatment and monitoring facilities, he added.
SPMC has stopped its outpatient services since mid-January due to the increase in COVID-19 admissions. All of the hospital’s 87 intensive care unit beds and 478 ward beds for virus patients were fully occupied since Jan. 27.
Close monitoring
Lopez said other nonhospital treatment facilities would also get their share of the oral drug, which would be a big help especially for those who only experienced mild and moderate symptoms. Before its availability, those infected were given antiviral injectables, food and other supplements.
“We can assure them (patients) that they will be well monitored if side effects happen, although we expect mild side effects based on its use in other countries,” Lopez said, referring to the antiviral drug, which was still under the emergency use authorization of the Food and Drug Administration.
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