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Canadian researchers to test if antiviral drug can stop COVID-19 outbreaks at nursing homes
long-term care homes that have been devastated by the coronavirus.Favipiravir, sold under the brand name Avigan, is typically used to treat viruses, like influenza, and works by stopping a cell’s potential to become a factory for the virus and spread infection, according to the researcher leading the study.“If we have a drug that you reliably use to stop outbreaks after they have started, that would be extraordinarily helpful,” Dr. Allison McGeer, the director of infection control at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, told Global News.