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The Department of Health and Social Care has this morning announced that it has signed contracts to buy another 4.25m courses of antivirals to protect patients from Covid. In a news release it says:
The two new contracts are for 1.75m additional courses of Merck Sharp and Dohme’s (MSD) molnupiravir (Lagevrio®) and 2.5m additional courses of PF-07321332/ritonavir (Paxlovid™) from Pfizer, which will be available from early next year and are both expected to be effective against Omicron.
The 4.25m courses are in addition to the procurement of 480,000 courses of molnupiravir and 250,000 courses of PF-07321332/ritonavir announced in October this year …
We think that, at the moment, that in the Christmas week, when people are trying to get away – fewer people than in a normal year but lots of people still trying to get away – we think it’s important to prioritise running as many trains as we can even if that means there’s a few more of those frustrating short-notice cancellations.
But obviously, as we get further into this wave of the pandemic – we hope will not materialise in the way that people are anticipating – it may be that we decide actually we need to prepare for a lower level of staffing over a longer period of time and we will reduce the timetable.
