New York City will deliver free antiviral pills to people who test Covid positive and are at higher risk from the virus, Mayor Eric Adams announced. “We want to make sure that one who has Covid-19 doesn’t need to move throughout the city for pills,” Adams said.

The oral antiviral medications approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), i.e. paxlovid from Pfizer and molnupiravir from Merck & Co., will be available to people in limited quantities. They will be delivered in partnership with Alto Pharmacy. Adams said that the increasing cases due to the omicron variant have made New York City the centre for Covid-19. The average daily reported infections in last week were over 5,000.