Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the level of access to antiviral treatments for people who are acutely vulnerable to covid-19.

For patients whose immune system means they are at the highest risk from COVID-19 and who test positive for the virus, treatments can be accessed directly through COVID Medicine Delivery Units (CMDUs). Those patients at high risk of COVID-19 who are ineligible to access treatments via CMDUs can access antivirals via the PANORAMIC national study.

The Department and NHS England are monitoring the uptake of antiviral treatment against those digitally identified as eligible. In England, 95% of eligible non-hospitalised patients who have received an antiviral treatment to date were treated within five days from the date of symptom onset.