(Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday removed the need for a positive test for COVID-19 treatments from Pfizer Inc and Merck & Co Inc.
Pfizer’s Paxlovid and Merck’s Lagevrio pills were given emergency use authorizations in Dec. 2021 for patients with mild-to-moderate COVID who tested positive for the virus, and who were at risk of progressing to severe COVID.
Still, the FDA said the patients should have a current diagnosis of mild-to-moderate COVID infection.
The health regulator said individuals with recent known exposure with signs and symptoms may be diagnosed by their healthcare providers with COVID even if they have a negative test result.
(Reporting by Raghav Mahobe in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
