A new Covid-19 antiviral drug won't be a silver bullet.

Paxlovid, an oral drug, will be available from next week.

It's taken twice a day for five days, which stops the virus from replicating.

College of General Practitioners Dr Bryan Betty told Andrew Dickens it can only be used in certain circumstances.

“It has to be used within the first five days of Covid coming on, so it has to be used very early and it’s used initially for mild to moderate disease.”

Betty says it will be targeted towards people who are immunocompromised to prevent them from being hospitalised.

“So they might've been treated for cancer and they're on medications that depress their immune system. They might have a whole lot of comorbidities like diabetes, asthma and rheumatoid arthritis.”

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