US Food and Drug Administration has authorised the first oral antiviral treatment for COVID-19

Made by Pfizer, it’s the first treatment of its kind and is made for ill people to take at home before they get sick enough to be hospitalised.

Dubbed PAX-LOVID it combines a new antiviral drug named and an older one.

Pfizer has recently released results that show the pill cuts the risk of hospitalisation or death by 89 percent when given to high-risk individuals within a few days of their first symptoms.

US President Joe Biden has previously labeled the treatment a “potentially powerful tool in the fight against the virus, including the Omicron variant”.