This antiviral, which is administered orally in pill form, is intended for adults and adolescents over 12 years of age (weighing at least 40 kilos) and suffering from mild or moderate COVID-19, but at risk of progressing to a state of severity .
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) already approved the possible emergency use of this pill in mid-December and is now considering the possibility of granting it a European license.
The pill “blocks” the activity of a specific enzyme that SARS-CoV-2 needs to replicate in the infected body, a mechanism similar to that of molnupiravir, the pill developed by the pharmaceutical company MSD (Merck in the United States and Canada).
After a six-week surge in infections, Africa’s fourth wave curve – which surpassed 10 million cases last week – has now begun to “flatten out,” the office said today. africana of the World Health Organization (WHO).
Although deaths from coronavirus on the continent increased by 64% during the week leading up to January 9 – a direct and logical consequence of the increase in infections during the preceding weeks, according to Nkengasong – the number of deaths is lower than in previous waves .
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It is still too early, however, to know if the climax of this fourth wave has been reached on the continent, as Africa CDC does not have “comprehensive epidemiological data to look at trends in other countries that have registered omicrons,” apart from South Africa, where the genomic study of the virus made it possible to detect this variant of the coronavirus in November.