New York City creates the first mobile test units in the United States that will allow people who test positive for the coronavirus to immediately receive the antiviral treatment Paxlovid for free.
Mayor Eric Adams announced the new program Thursday in Manhattan with Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House Covid-19 Response Coordinator.
The new “Test to Treat” program for mobile units is part of federal and city efforts to reduce the impact of the virus and prepare for future waves of cases. Health officials want to improve access to antiviral drugs for vulnerable New Yorkers who may not be aware of treatment or have no primary care physician or health insurance.
“By putting life-saving drugs in the hands of New Yorkers minutes after they test positive, we are once again leading the nation to deliver rapidly accessible care to those who need it,” Mr Adams said in a statement.
President Biden announced a national “Test to Treat” effort in his State of the Union address in March. The federal program relies on hundreds of local pharmacy clinics and community health centers to prescribe antiviral treatments on the spot. No other city except New York has used mobile test units for the program to date.
Starting Thursday, three of the city’s mobile testing units will include a doctor who can prescribe antiviral drugs for those who qualify. The units are set up outside the local pharmacies that can deliver those prescriptions directly. The locations are in the Inwood section of Manhattan, South Ozone Park in Queens, and in the East Bronx — all neighborhoods away from downtown or downtown Manhattan where many working-class workers live.
The number of mobile sites that can offer the prescription will expand to more than 30 by the end of July, city officials said, adding that the city will begin offering antiviral drugs directly to its 30 mobile units later this summer, rather than through a nearby pharmacy. . The city already offers free home delivery of antiviral treatments.
dr. Ted Long, executive director of the city’s Test & Trace Corps, said the first patient at the new mobile testing site outside Inwood Pharmacy this week was a woman who didn’t have a cell phone and was recently exposed to the virus. She tested positive and left the pharmacy with Paxlovid.
“This effort is focused on equality,” he said.
dr. Jha said in an interview that there has been a major increase in Paxlovid use across the country in the past three months and 240,000 new prescriptions for the treatment were reported last week, the highest weekly total to date. But he said people who tested positive in poorer communities had not used antiviral treatments as often as people in wealthier communities.
“I like this idea,” he said of New York’s mobile program. “You can go to the people where they are. I expect this to go very well, and it will be a great model for the rest of the country to follow.”
