Government "Stockpiling Antiviral Drugs for COVID-19 Treatment"

Quarantine Countermeasures Headquarters Implementing Strategy to Minimize Damage in TK Region with Rapid Patient Increase
Prioritizing Hospital Bed Allocation and Admission for Severe Patients to Reduce Casualties
"No Targeted COVID-19 Therapeutics Yet... Reviewing Applicability of Existing Drugs"

On the 5th, medical staff are conducting patient treatment simulation exercises in the COVID-19 patient ward set up at Seoul St. Mary's Hospital in Seocho-gu, Seoul. Seoul St. Mary's Hospital has prepared a total of 30 beds in one ward for COVID-19 patients and suspected cases, and will start admitting COVID-19 patients from this day. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Daeyeol] The government is preparing various treatments that have been used so far for patient care to reduce casualties caused by the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). Although no therapeutics specifically targeting COVID-19 have been developed, some existing drugs have shown effectiveness.

Jung Eun-kyung, head of the Central Quarantine Countermeasures Headquarters for COVID-19, said at a briefing on the 8th, "In the Daegu and Gyeongbuk regions where patients have surged, minimizing damage is a more urgent matter," adding, "Since treatments such as Kaletra (an antiviral used for HIV infection) and antimalarial drugs are already available, we are focusing on stockpiling and securing these drugs to ensure safe supply management."

She continued, "New therapeutics still require clinical review," and said, "We are proceeding with clinical trial approval for Remdesivir, and for Avigan, clinical evidence acquisition and drug procurement need to proceed simultaneously."

The quarantine authorities focus initially on preventing local spread according to the infectious disease outbreak pattern, and when confirmed cases increase and the epidemic spreads, they implement measures to minimize casualties. In Daegu and Gyeongbuk, where patients surged mainly among Shincheonji Church members, as part of the damage minimization strategy, measures are being taken to allocate hospital beds based on severity to concentrate on treating severe patients. However, there are still no clear measures regarding therapeutics or vaccines, as no COVID-19-targeted therapeutics or vaccines have been developed yet.

Previously, during the nationwide outbreak of the novel influenza (H1N1) in 2009, active measures such as relaxing prescription criteria at frontline medical institutions were taken when respiratory infection symptoms appeared. At that time, Tamiflu targeting influenza had been developed, and vaccines for prevention were available. Currently, various research institutions and private companies in Korea are working on developing therapeutics, but since clinical trials and other procedures remain, it is difficult to take similar immediate measures.

This is also the background for efforts to evaluate the suitability of other newly developed drugs for COVID-19 treatment. Head Jung said, "I believe that efforts to secure effective therapeutics by accelerating research and development of antibody treatments or new antivirals for COVID-19 are an important area," adding, "We will speed up the therapeutic development process through research and development and cooperation with the private sector (companies, etc.)."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.