Stoke-on-Trent South MP Jack Brereton has welcomed the UK Governments' new Antiviral Taskforce, which aims to find treatments for people exposed to COVID-19 and prevent serious illness and spread.
The taskforce will search for the most promising novel antiviral medicines that can be taken at home and support their development through clinical trials to ensure they can be rapidly rolled out to patients as early as the autumn. The taskforce will also look at opportunities to onshore the manufacture of antiviral treatments.
The aim is to have at least 2 effective treatments this year, either in a tablet or capsule form, that the public can take at home following a positive COVID-19 test or exposure to someone with the virus.
This will be another vital tool to combat any future increase in infections and limit the impact of new variants, especially over the flu season later this year.
Jack Brereton MP said:
"COVID cases in Stoke-on-Trent continue to drop, by nearly 33% over the past 10 days. With continued rollout of vaccines, testing to identify new cases, and remarkable new advances in technology, we will keep the Virus down for good.
Please don't forget to maintain the hands, face, space guidance which has got us this far"
