Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether the UK is out of step with other countries in its eligibility restrictions for COVID-19 antiviral treatments, such as precluding those over 70 and with COVID-19 symptoms from accessing them.

Here in the United Kingdom, the Government has made available a range of treatment options for eligible hospitalized and non-hospitalized patients with COVID-19. These are being used to treat UK patients in line with evidence-based recommendations from National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), following the established processes in this area.

NICE has determined eligibility of access following a review of the available evidence and taking into consideration reports such as the Independent Advisory Group’s report on higher-risk patients eligible for COVID-19 treatments.

The UK’s guidance, as with the World Health Organization living guideline, have been published in MAGICapp, a global evidence ecosystem used by global partners to help formulate local access policies.