Bay Harbour: October 26, 2022

Wednesday <strong>October</strong> <strong>26</strong> <strong>2022</strong> <strong>Bay</strong> <strong>Harbour</strong> News 9<br />

Free COVID<br />

antiviral medicines<br />

are available<br />

Free oral antiviral medicines are available for people at risk of becoming<br />

very unwell from COVID, and free RATs are available for everyone.<br />

Benefits of antiviral medicines<br />

Antiviral medicine can help people be less sick and stay out of hospital. The medicine must be<br />

taken within the first 5 days of having COVID symptoms to reduce the amount of virus in the body.<br />

Who can get antiviral medicines<br />

Eligible people include:<br />

• Māori or Pacific people aged 50 years or older<br />

• everyone aged 65 years and older<br />

• anyone aged 50 years or older who has had<br />

less than two COVID vaccinations<br />

• anyone with a severely weakened immune system,<br />

Down syndrome, sickle cell anaemia, or were previously<br />

in critical or high dependency hospital care from COVID.<br />

• anyone with three or more high-risk medical conditions.<br />

For the full list of high-risk medical conditions,<br />

visit Covid19.govt.nz/medicines<br />

When to get antiviral medications<br />

To get the COVID antiviral medicines, all of these must apply:<br />

• you have COVID, or you are a household contact and<br />

have symptoms<br />

• your symptoms started within the last 5 days<br />

• you are eligible for the medicine.<br />

Your doctor, nurse, hauora provider, or local pharmacy<br />

can tell you if you are eligible and may provide you with<br />

a prescription. If your local pharmacy does not prescribe<br />

antiviral medicine, they can put you in touch with a pharmacy<br />

that does.<br />

How to get antiviral medications<br />

If you have COVID you must isolate for 7 days. You can<br />

arrange to have medicines delivered by friends or whānau.<br />

If needed, pharmacies that provide COVID antiviral medicine<br />

can have them delivered to you, for free.<br />

Free RATs<br />

Free rapid antigen tests (RATs) are available for everyone, and you do not need to have COVID to get them.<br />

You can order them online at RequestRATS.Covid19.health.nz and collect them at community providers,<br />

marae, testing centres, and some pharmacies, or have someone collect them for you.<br />

Upload your test results, positive or negative, to MyCovidRecord.health.nz, or call 0800 222 478<br />

and choose option 3.<br />

Find out more at Covid19.govt.nz