As COVID-19 cases continue to soar in Butler County, a new pill being distributed through the Pennsylvania Department of Health will treat patients with the disease, rather than prevent initial infection.

Butler County added 1,194 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 over the weekend, according to the state Department of Health. Butler Memorial Hospital reported Monday it has 57 inpatients with COVID-19, with seven in the intensive care unit.

As of now, Pfizer's Paxlovid and Merck's Molnupiravir pills can be prescribed only by a doctor, but Dr. Ryan Bariola, an infectious diseases physician at UPMC, said they are another option in combating the individual effects of COVID-19.

“These medications, especially the Paxlovid if it's truly 85% effective, I think that's a very strong weapon against the virus,” Bariola said Monday. “They can easily take the pill, it's convenient for patients.”

While the Department of Health is distributing the pills for free to pharmacies in every county, only the Giant Eagle at 1521 N. Main St. in Butler has Paxlovid, and it and the Rite Aid at 221 Grove City Road in Slippery Rock are the only pharmacies that have Molnupiravir in Butler County, according to the department.

Bariola said the pills are meant only for specific patients. A patient must be within five days of experiencing symptoms, experiencing symptoms that are not life-threatening and at a high-risk of developing a serious disease to be prescribed a treatment pill, which is a five-day treatment method.

People who have received the COVID-19 vaccine can be prescribed pills, but they will not be paired with monochlonal antibody treatment as of now. Patients who take the pill will begin to see their symptoms wane, but Bariola said they should quarantine from others.

“These two new pills are antivirals that are sort of like antibiotics,” Bariola said. “They actually disrupt the virus' life cycle in different ways. They prevent it from reproducing new particles, so it can't spread.”

These COVID-19 treatment pills are under emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but Bariola said they have been studied for early approval.

“They have been studied. All of the data has been given to the FDA, and they felt they are very safe and very effective,” Bariola said. “Emergency authorization is faster, but they will still take their time to do full approval.”

He said the only known side effects of the pill would be stomach-related, like other antibiotics, and as of now doctors are being careful to prescribe the pills alongside other medicines.

Bariola said the COVID-19 vaccines and booster shots remain the most effective method to prevent the spread of the disease, and these pills are meant strictly for treatment.

“Prevention is still better than treatment,” Bariola said.

On Jan. 4, Bariola participated in a virtual discussion about the COVID-19 treatment options available for Pennsylvanians, alongside state Physician General Dr. Denise Johnson and Dr. Pablo Tebas, professor of medicine and infectious diseases physician at the hospital at University of Pennsylvania.

The doctors were in agreement that the variety of treatment options will help stop the effects of COVID-19 on an individual patient level, and that of the population at large.

“We have learnt a lot since the beginning of this pandemic and have developed effective diagnostic, supportive, preventive and therapeutic tools to fight this terrible infection,” Tebas said. “We need to be able to adapt to the current pandemic situation to offer our patients the best therapeutic options at any given time in the course of their disease and to decrease the strain in our health systems, so we can continue to provide the best possible supportive care both to people with COVID-19 and those without it.”