New York City is creating the first mobile testing units in the United States that will allow people who test positive for the coronavirus to receive Paxlovid antiviral treatment immediately for free.
Mayor Eric Adams announced the new program in Manhattan on Thursday with dr. Ashish Jha, the White House Covid-19 Response Coordinator.
The new “Test to Treat” mobile unit program is part of federal and city efforts to reduce the impact of the virus and to prepare for future waves of cases. Health officials want to improve access to antiviral drugs for vulnerable New Yorkers who may not know about the treatment or do not have a primary care physician or health insurance.
“By getting life-saving medication into the hands of New Yorkers minutes after they test positive, we are once again leading the nation to provide quickly accessible care to those who need it,” he said. Adams said in a statement.
President Biden announced a national ‘Test to Treat’ effort in March in his State of the Nation address. The federal program relies on hundreds of local pharmacy-based clinics and community health centers to prescribe antiviral treatments on the spot. No other city except New York has yet used mobile test devices for the program.
As of Thursday, three of the city’s mobile testing units will include a clinician who can prescribe antiviral medication for those who are eligible. The units will be set up outside local pharmacies that can immediately fill those prescriptions. The sites will be in the Inwood portion of Manhattan, South Ozone Park in Queens, and in the East Bronx – all neighborhoods away from downtown or downtown Manhattan that have many working class residents.
The number of mobile sites that can offer the prescription will expand to more than 30 by the end of July, city officials said, adding that the city will start offering antiviral medication directly to the 30 mobile units later this summer, rather than by ‘ a nearby pharmacy. The city already offers free home delivery of antiviral treatments.
Dr. Ted Long, executive director of the city’s Test & Trace Corps, said the first patient at the new mobile test site outside Inwood Pharmacy this week was a woman who did not have a cell phone and was recently exposed to the virus. She tested positive and left the pharmacy with Paxlovid.
“This effort is focused on equity,” he said.
Dr Jha said in an interview that there has been a huge increase in the use of Paxlovid over the past three months across the country, and that 240,000 new prescriptions for treatment were reported last week, the highest weekly total so far. But he said people who tested positive in poorer communities did not receive antiviral treatments as often as people in richer communities.
“I love this idea,” he said of New York’s mobile app. “You can go to people where they are. I expect it to go very well, and it will be a good model for the rest of the country to follow. ”
A recent study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that people living in the most socially and economically disadvantaged areas in the United States are half as likely as those in wealthier communities to take the new antiviral treatments. to be prescribed, although many of the distribution sites are in those areas.
Dr. Jha and dr. Ashwin Vasan, New York City’s health commissioner, said there’s a lot of Paxlovid available to New Yorkers who need it.
“Now we’re kind of flooded in Paxlovid,” said dr. Vasan said.