UK buys millions of anti-COVID pills, cuts quarantine period as Omicron surges

LONDON — The UK government announces it is buying millions of doses of new COVID-19 treatment pills as the Omicron variant takes hold, while cutting the isolation period for positive cases.

The government says it has signed deals to buy 4.25 million courses of two new antiviral drugs: Pfizer’s Ritonavir and US rival Merck/MSD’s Molnupiravir, which will be available early next year.

This comes on top of government announcements in October of the procurement of several hundreds of thousands of doses, and was hailed as a “mammoth deal” by Health Secretary Sajid Javid.

The UK has seen a surge in infections since Omicron became the dominant variant, with 90,629 cases reported yesterday. The country is one of the hardest hit in Europe, with a death toll of 147,433.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has resisted calls to impose stricter virus restrictions over Christmas in England, unlike the devolved governments in other UK nations.

From today, those who have caught the virus but feel well can come out of self-isolation after seven days instead of 10, potentially allowing more to join family celebrations.

This rule only applies to people who have taken two negative lateral flow tests, NHS England says.

At the same time, UK leaders were expected to announce fresh virus measures for the post-Christmas period.

Large New Year’s Eve events have already been cancelled in London and Edinburgh.