The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended the use of antiviral drug molnupiravir for the treatment of Covid-19 patients who are at risk of hospitalization.

“WHO has updated its living guidelines on Covid-19 therapeutics to include a conditional recommendation on molnupiravir, a new antiviral medicine,” the organization said in a statement.

"Molnupiravir should be provided only to non-severe Covid-19 patients with the highest risk of hospitalization," it added.

These patients are "typically people who have not received a Covid-19 vaccination, older people, people with immunodeficiencies and people living with chronic diseases," it said.

"Children, and pregnant and breastfeeding women should not be given the drug," the WHO noted.

Molnupiravir is an oral drug and should be given “as four tablets (total 800 mg) twice daily for five days; within five days of symptom onset,” the WHO said. This should be under the supervision of a health professional, it added.

"Used as early as possible after infection, it can help prevent hospitalization. Today’s recommendation is based on new data from six randomized controlled trials involving 4796 patients. This is the largest dataset on this drug so far," the WHO said.

Five brands of molnupiravir were so far granted an emergency use authorization (EUA) by the country's Food and Drug Administration (FDA).