Health authorities have announced it will expand access to COVID-19 treatment pills that can prevent severe cases of infection.

According to the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters on Friday, fewer than 20 percent of patients aged 60 or older were prescribed the pills as of the first week of August.

In a bid to encourage patients to take the medication, the government will allow over one-thousand clinics and hospitals to prescribe them, regardless of their field of medicine. The number of pharmacies that can prepare the oral treatment will double to two-thousand-175.

The government earlier signed an agreement to purchase enough pills to treat 942-thousand patients in early August.

Authorities will distribute educational materials and prescription guidelines to medical personnel nationwide, so they may become familiar with the many restrictions involved in prescribing the pills.