Australia has secured two additional COVID-19 treatments, which Health Minister Greg Hunt has said are not replacing vaccinations. The government has reached an agreement with Roche Products to supply 15,000 doses of the COVID-19 antibody-based therapy Ronapreve. Hunt said the intravenous treatment given in the early stages of infection provides a 70 percent reduction in the likelihood of someone being hospitalised or dying. “These doses are to be in Australia during the course of October and subject to TGA approval,” he told reporters in Canberra on Sunday. The government has also secured 500,000 courses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 oral antiviral drug, which will be available in 2022 subject to Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) approval. “This treatment, which is still undergoing clinical trials, is expected to help to reduce the severity or onset of illness in adults who contract, or have been exposed to, COVID-19,” he said. “They do not replace vaccinations.” …