Lay summary
SARS-CoV-2 still poses a real threat to public health, with hospitalisations in New Zealand (NZ) due to COVID-19 outnumbering all other infectious diseases. While vaccination has been successful in reducing severe illness, antivirals have also played a crucial role, particularly in protecting high risk individuals (e.g. ≥65yrs or unvaccinated). However, only 22% of individuals ≥65yrs that died, and 39% that were hospitalised, received antiviral treatment between January 2022–March 2023. The primary aim of this project is to understand who missed out on antiviral treatment when eligible and how their distribution could be made more equitable to ultimately reduce hospitalisations, deaths and long-term illness caused by COVID-19 in NZ. This will be the first investigation into whether the distribution of antiviral treatments in NZ was equitable and will inform current service delivery and clinical practice while also providing important data to guide population-wide rollout of treatment in future pandemics.