The health ministry has approved expanded use of an antibody cocktail treatment for COVID-19 patients with mild to moderate symptoms. Previously approved only for use at hospitals, the treatment is now allowed for those recuperating at accommodation facilities.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry on Friday revised the regulations on the intravenous antibody cocktail treatment to make it easier to administer the drug to patients in a wider range of settings and notified prefectural governments of the revision. As the rapid spread of novel coronavirus infections has put a strain on hospital beds in medical institutions, the ministry hopes expanded use of the treatment will prevent more patients from becoming severely ill.
The ministry has also decided to regard hotels and other facilities where doctors and nurses treat patients as temporary medical facilities so that they can quickly respond to patients when their condition deteriorates.
Doctors are required to monitor each patient's condition during the administration of the cocktail and for an hour afterward. The latest revision, however, does not allow the administration of the cocktail at facilities for the elderly or at patients' homes.
In the antibody cocktail treatment, the cocktail -- two combined neutralizing antibodies that prevent infections with the coronavirus -- is administered intravenously. Some clinical trials conducted overseas have shown that the treatment is effective in reducing the risk of COVID-19-related hospitalizations and deaths by 70%, among other data.
In principle, the cocktail must be administered within seven days of the onset of the disease, but prior to Friday's revision, its use was limited to inpatients. There were calls from medical workers to relax the conditions for its use. One of them said, "To use the cocktail at an early stage of the illness, we need to administer it to patients recuperating at accommodation facilities."
Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike announced Friday that the Tokyo metropolitan government had begun giving the cocktail treatment to patients at accommodation facilities under a doctor's supervision.
Also on Friday, the Tokyo Medical Association announced that it will start offering nighttime online medical consultation services, among other measures, to support people recuperating at home.
Under the envisaged online services, mainly general practitioners in Tokyo will provide consultations from around 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. after their regular hours at their own facilities. About 100 to 200 patients per day are expected to receive online consultations.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
