St. Luke’s Carbon Campus has been selected as one of the health networks to distribute the new oral COVID-19 antiviral medications that were recently approved for use.

During the Carbon County Interagency Collaborative meeting this morning, Joseph Pinto, chief operating officer for the Carbon campus, announced that the campus was chosen as a distribution site of the new medication for the county. The oral medication that will be available is the Merck molnupiravir pills.

Pinto said it will be distributed by prescription only.

Patients who receive a prescription from their physician will also receive a call-in number, which they will call when they get to the campus and a staff member will then bring their prescription out to the patient’s vehicle.

“We’re happy to get that out to the community,” Pinto said, noting that the distribution will be starting either Thursday or Friday.

He added that while this is another way to help patients, vaccines and masking are still the best way to protect yourself against severe COVID.