Minister of Health discusses making COVID-19 treatments more widely available

By Aaron Humes: In the past, the Ministry of Health and Wellness has been conservative concerning allowing the use of certain treatments for COVID-19, especially among the seriously ill.

With new cases, deaths, and hospitalizations trending down, Minister Kevin Bernard assured us on Monday, the Ministry is looking to make treatments and medications that are more expensive and available in a limited format to private entities more widely distributed.

“Going forward for me, I think that we need to start looking at where, at the public facilities, we can make these medications affordable and accessible,” he said.

He confirmed that Ivermectin is being used “to a lesser extent” with patients as well as monoclonal antibodies which are more costly, “but we are trying as the Ministry, looking at options where we can bring in these medications at lesser price to allow that they be distributed at our public health facilities.”

Fortunately, those who have come down with the Omicron variant have largely managed to avoid being hospitalized and so, the Minister said, we can perhaps start looking forward to the “endemic stage” of COVID-19 as a disease, but warned that things can change in an instant.

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