Getting COVID Treatment

For those at high risk, there are medications, including Paxlovid, that can prevent severe illness and hospitalization from COVID-19 if taken soon after infection.

If you age 65 or older, pregnant, or have a medical condition that puts you at high risk for a severe case of COVID, including those listed here, then you qualify for treatment. If you test positive for COVID, take one of the following steps:

• Call your primary care office and tell them that you think you might qualify for treatment for COVID-19.
• If you don’t have a primary care provider, visit SVMC ExpressCare/Respiratory Evaluation Center. 

In many parts of the United States, those who qualify may get tested and treated in one location, such as participating pharmacies and community health centers through a program called “test-to-treat.”

Currently, there are no participating locations in our service area; however, the program is expected to expand from 20,000 to 30,000 locations soon. Visit ASPR.HHS.gov/TesttoTreat to learn more.

Trey Dobson, MD, is an emergency medicine physician at Dartmouth Health; the chief medical officer at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, part of Southwestern Vermont Health Care in Bennington; and the medical director of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Putnam Physicians.