President Joe Biden will direct officials to double the government's purchase of Pfizer's antiviral COVID-19 pill from 10 million to 20 million in a speech on Tuesday.
'These pills will be delivered in the coming months and have been shown to dramatically decrease hospitalization and death from COVID-19,' the White House said in a tweet ahead of Biden's remarks.
The Food and Drug Administration granted Pfizer emergency authorization for its Paxlovid-nirmatrelvir tablets and ritonavir tablets last month.
The pill is the first oral antiviral treatment for COVID-19 and is said to be effective against the Omicron variant.
The announcement will come as the United States recorded a million cases of COVID on Monday.
That morning, the US reported 55,114,057 confirmed cases. By midnight, the tally had risen to 56,190,946 - an increase of well over a million in under 24 hours.
But hospitalization rates and CVS pharmacy near me the death rate remains low compared to past waves.
President Joe Biden will address the Omicron crisis on Tuesday and will direct officials to double the government's puchase of Pfizer's antiviral COVID-19 pill from 10 million to 20 million in his remarks
Pfizer said that its Covid pill, called Paxlovid (pictured), is also effective against Omicron
The Biden administration has already paid $5.295 billion for the first 10 million courses of Paxlovid