HNZ: Updated COVID-19 antiviral clinical guidance and Primary Care COVID-19 Quick Reference Guide

Kia ora koutou 

COVID-19 Care in the Community has updated the clinical guidance for COVID-19 antivirals and Primary Care COVID-19 Quick Reference Guide (both attached), and we will be grateful if you can use these to inform your care from now on. These documents will be available on the COVID-19 Advice for all health professionals webpage. 

None of these updates are new - they have all been communicated previously in official updates. However, the Care in the Community team has compiled this update to summarise some guidance changes that have occurred since August 2022.

Key changes in the updated COVID-19 antiviral clinical guidance are as follows:

• Latest eligibility criteria
• Considerations for holiday period
• Pharmacist-only reclassification
• Advice supporting increased use of Paxlovid
• Guidance for dosing in chronic kidney disease (CKD)
• Advice on management of drug interactions with Paxlovid
• Links to key resources
• Advice on rebound infection and re-infection
• Advice on timeliness of delivery
• Process for reporting COVID-19 positive results
• Advance prescription guidance
• Timeframe for renal function tests
• Advice that these medicines are not for treatment of long COVID

We also expect to share some new resources and information about COVID-19 antivirals soon, which you may wish to use to boost awareness of the treatments. 

Key changes in the updated Primary Care COVID-19 Quick Reference Guide are as follows:

• Predicted timings for symptom onset with Omicron
• When to consider doing a PCR test
• When to test asymptomatic people
• Long COVID update and link to access the clinical guidelines for rehabilitation 

We also expect an update on the criteria for testing, which are currently being reviewed and may be updated in the first half of December.

Many thanks for your continued mahi in caring for people with COVID-19. 

Ngā mihi  

Dan Hirst (he/him)  

Group Manager, COVID Care in the Community 

133 Molesworth Street, Wellington | PO Box 5013, Wellington 6140