“Test To Treat” Sites with Free COVID-19 Antiviral Pills are Rolling Out across the U.S.

CNN reports that the rollout of the U.S. government’s COVID-19 “Test-to-Treat” program is underway, with in-pharmacy clinics ordering shipments of COVID-19 antiviral medications and some locations expecting to offer the service within days. Last week, in its new National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan, the White House announced the Test-to-Treat initiative, in which people can visit “one-stop” sites that offer free COVID-19 testing and that prescribe free antiviral pills on the spot if they test positive.

“We’ve had more than 1,000 pharmacy-based clinic sites register today, so that even exceeded our expectations for Day One of this program,” says Dr. Tom Inglesby, senior adviser to the White House’s COVID-19 Response Team. The COVID-19 antiviral pills Paxlovid and molnupiravir are already available for free in the United States, but quick access can be challenging for some people.

“If you get COVID-19, the Pfizer pill reduces your chances of ending up in the hospital by 90%,” President Joe Biden said in his State of the Union address. “I’ve ordered more pills than anyone in the world has. Pfizer is working overtime to get us a million pills this month and more than double that next month.”

Here’s what you need to know about getting the COVID-19 medicines that you can take at home through the test-to-treat program.

The medicines are currently getting delivered to testing sites, as the ordering process was launched to pharmacy-based clinics around the country, and as orders for the antiviral medications come in, shipments will be sorted out within a day or so. This means that patients are expected to be able to get anti-virals through the program any day now.

The “one-stop” test-to-treat locations will be available at hundreds of sites nationwide, including pharmacies that have clinics, federally qualified health centers and long-term care facilities, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Certain pharmacies across the United States — including CVS, Walgreens and Walmart — have confirmed that some of their locations are preparing to participate in the test-to-treat program, such as Minute Clinic locations in CVS pharmacies.

“We’ve begun ordering COVID-19 antiviral medications directly through the Federal Government as part of the Test to Treat program,” CVS spokesperson Matt Blanchette wrote in an email Tuesday. “We’ll begin offering end-to-end access to these therapies in our nearly 1,200 MinuteClinic medical clinics, located inside select CVS Pharmacy locations, when the allocation arrives, which is expected to start as early as this week.”

Walgreens pharmacies have administered more than 26 million COVID-19 tests during the pandemic and more recently began dispensing COVID-19 antiviral pills, spokesperson Karen May wrote in an email last week. On Tuesday, May added, “Through the test to treat program, patients will be able to receive oral COVID-19 antivirals in select Walgreens stores where we have provider partners that are able to assess patients and prescribe these therapies later this week.”