A spokesperson for the agency confirmed that it has sent out 19.1 million tablets, including to Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Miami and Chicago.
The Strategic National Stockpile has sent out 19.1 million tablets of hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug that some doctors have prescribed to Covid-19 patients, a spokesperson for the Federal Emergency Management Agency confirmed. The tablets, sent out in two shipments, are heading to cities around the country.
About 10.1 million are going to the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, as well as Washington, D.C.; Baton Rouge; St. Louis; Philadelphia; Baltimore; Miami; Milwaukee; Indianapolis; Houston and Pittsburgh.
Another shipment, of 9 million tablets, is headed for Detroit, New Orleans, New York City and Chicago, according to the spokesperson.
Those last four cities — particularly New York — have been hit hard by the pandemic. Others slated to receive the medication have fewer cases but may face upticks. Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located, has fewer than 900 cases, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Heath. And Milwaukee County has fewer than 2,000, per its county government. Miami-Dade County, meanwhile, has 7,555 confirmed cases of the illness, according to the Miami Herald. And Cook County in Illinois has had more than 15,000 cases, per the county’s Department of Public Health.
Erin Fox, senior director of Drug Information and Support Services at the University of Utah College of Pharmacy, said most courses of hydroxychloroquine treatment for Covid-19 take 12 to 14 tablets. So the shipments will cover treatment for about 1.4 million patients.
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