Medicines for COVID-19 are running out in pharmacies as Czech citizens stock up

There's a noticeable surge in the consumption of antiviral drugs prescribed to high-risk COVID-19 patients by primary care physicians, according to Czech Deputy Minister of Health, Jakub Dvořáček. He attributes this scenario to the rise in virus infection cases.

Doctors have so far prescribed over 121,000 antiviral drug packages to combat COVID-19, with roughly 20,000 dispensed in the first half of this year alone.

"The demand for antiviral drugs is much higher than initially anticipated. We’re currently dispatching about 4,000 packages per week, which is quite a significant amount," Dvořáček noted, as reported by the Novinky portal. Nevertheless, he reassures the public that there’ll be no shortage of these drugs. “We have ensured a sufficient supply of both types of antiviral drugs so that every patient who requires them, receives them,” he confirmed. Both Lagevrio and Paxlovid medicines are available.

The Czech State Institute of Health asserts that the uptick in drug consumption is primarily because COVID-19 is currently the most widespread respiratory disease. On Monday alone, labs recorded nearly 3,500 new COVID-19 cases, leading to over 800 hospitalizations.

It's crucial to highlight that such a surge may be related to the fast-evolving nature of the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of cases can fluctuate, depending on the time and region. Antiviral drugs are frequently prescribed to people at high risk, such as the elderly or those with underlying health conditions, to mitigate the severity of the disease.