Odisha state govt to start favipiravir therapy for COVID-19 patients in home isolation
India’s Odisha government has decided to start favipiravir therapy for COVID-19 patients getting treatment in home isolation. The decision was taken after a high-level meeting held under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy on Monday.
Chief Secretary has asked Odisha Health and Family Welfare Department to widely circulate the Standard Operating Protocol (SOP) on the use of oral favipiravir among the doctors and to train members of rapid response teams ( RRTs) properly for assessing the suitability of a patient in home isolation for the therapy. Government sources said, “As of now near about 80 per cent of COVID-19 positive patients are preferring home isolation.” Addressing the meeting Chief Secretary Tripathy said, “COVID-19 is an evolving crisis. The new clinical input and empirical evidence about the pandemic have proved the effectiveness of Favipiravir treatment as antiviral therapy.
It will save the patients in home isolation from getting serious. Many doctors and virus experts have posted that medicine will be helpful in COVID management to a large extent”.
Mr Tripathy warned that the medicine needs to be “administered with proper advice and precaution and asked a team of experienced doctors to advise the patients in home isolation over audiovisual media about this therapy. The patients will take the therapy under the advice and guidance of physicians.”