The first shipment of oral COVID drugs will see limited rollout in Georgia

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Georgia DPH map of the first providers of new oral COVID medications in the state.

Credit: Georgia DPH

The Georgia Department of Public Health has released its list of the 40 counties which will see the first shipments of two new, prescription only, oral medications to treat COVID.

Unlike vaccinations which treat COVID by preventing coronavirus infection or limiting the severity of the disease, the new pills are only meant to lessen the severity of symptomatic COVID and will not help limit the spread of the virus.

"Our goal was to get the very limited supply of product to locations throughout the state, which included urban and rural areas," said DPH spokesperson Nancy Nydam. "Several factors that were considered included vaccination coverage, social vulnerability index, access to other COVID-19 therapeutics such as monoclonal antibodies, and availability to pharmacy partner sites able to accept the initial order."

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Along those lines, rural Dodge County, with a population of about 20,000 which is only 14% vaccinated against COVID, will see more providers of the drugs Monopuravir and Paxlovid than any other county. That's three in the town of Eastman and one further south in the town of Rhine.

Missing are any providers in either of the state's most populous counties, Fulton and Gwinnett, though there are providers near county lines in DeKalb County. Meanwhile hospitals in the core of metro Atlanta just met again their Delta surge peak for COVID hospitalizations.

Nancy Nydam of Georgia DPH said more providers will brought into the program with subsequent shipments.