Pres. Joe Biden Increases Pfizer Paxlovid COVID Antiviral Pill Order to 20 Million! Twice Than the Original Plan

President Joe Biden has decided to increase the current order for Pfizer's COVID antiviral pill called Paxlovid.

The initial order for Paxlovid were only around 10 million units. But Biden decided to increase it to 20 million medicines, CNN reported.

"Production is in full swing. The United States has more pills than any other country in the world and our supply is going to ramp up over the coming months, as more of these pills are manufactured," the president said during remarks at the White House on Tuesday.

Joe Biden Doubles Pfizer's Paxlovid Order

According to the U.S. News report, Joe Biden said people should be concerned about the rising COVID-19 cases in the United States.

However, he noted that residents should not be alarmed since the government is doing its best to ease the problems in school closures and testing shortages, among others.

Biden also urged the people to get vaccine shots, saying that there's still a chance to contract the viral disease. However, he noted that becoming seriously ill is unlikely to happen if vaccinated.

Right now, the current administration is waiting for the arrival of 20 million Paxlovid pills. But the president said the nation might need more orders in the coming months.

The first batch of Pfizer's antiviral pill was already shipped out last December 2021. The government is expecting the next batches to arrive this January. However, this would still depend on the shipment efficiency of Pfizer to deliver its Paxlovid pills.

CDC Says 95% of New Infections in U.S. is Omicron Variant

CBS News reported that the majority of the new cases in the United States are Omicron infections. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a new report saying that around 95 percent of the newly infected cases in the U.S. involve the new variant.

As of the moment, various health agencies claim that the new COVID-19 variant is more infectious than the Delta variant. That means that it can rapidly spread than the other virus type.

But other experts noted that infectivity of the new Omicron variant is still hard to pin down since medical researchers are still working on sequencing the variant's first outbreaks.

Right now, experts suggest that the best thing the public can do is follow the suggestions of the CDC and other trusted agencies.