A study involving more than 12,000 COVID-19 patients in Hong Kong found the incidence of viral rebound was very low.
For the study, published Dec. 6 in JAMA Network Open, researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong analyzed the outcomes of 12,629 adult COVID-19 patients hospitalized between Jan. 1 and March 31, when the omicron variant was dominant. Of these patients, 195 received Paxlovid, 746 received molnupiravir and 11,688 were not treated with an antiviral.
One percent of Paxlovid recipients had a viral rebound, compared to 0.8 percent of molnupiravir recipients and 0.6 percent of people who didn't receive antivirals.
"In this study, viral rebound was uncommon in adults with COVID-19 after treatment with nirmatrelvir-ritonavir and molnupiravir, suggesting that these novel oral antivirals should be prescribed to more patients with COVID-19 in the early phase of the infection," study authors wrote.
View the full study here.