A Government spokesman said that the Department of Health today (April 11) issued a letter to private doctors who have registered under the eHRSS (Electronic Health Record Sharing System) informing them that a dedicated electronic platform is in place to enable them to make requests for the two antivirals Paxlovid and Molnupiravir for COVID-19 patients from this evening.

     The Government had announced on April 2 that it would gradually provide free COVID-19 oral drugs to private doctors for prescribing the drugs to suitable COVID-19 patients to reduce the risk of deterioration of their clinical conditions.

     To keep track of the prescriptions, private doctors who wish to prescribe the COVID-19 oral drugs should have registered under the eHRSS. Private doctors should log in at the platform to make the requests, and the order will be distributed to their selected practice address among those they have registered with the eHRSS. The distributor will process the requests as far as possible on the following working day for those made before 4pm during weekdays. A maximum of 10 standard courses of treatments for each antiviral is allowed on each order request. Allocation of the antivirals will be subject to availability and usage of the drugs under the doctor's account.

     Guidelines, fact sheets on the use of the drugs as well as other points to note provided by the Hospital Authority (HA) are available for download at the ordering pages of the platform. Private doctors must follow the treatment guidelines set out by the HA. They should not charge patients any fees for the COVID-19 oral drugs.

     In addition to prescribing treatment, private doctors are reminded that COVID-19 is a statutory notifiable disease according to the Prevention and Control of Disease Ordinance (Cap. 599), and each case should be reported to the Centre for Health Protection.

Ends/Monday, April 11, 2022
Issued at HKT 19:30

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