Services
Flu and COVID: treatment, not just vaccination
Antiviral treatment has a window measured in days, and it starts closing the moment you feel unwell. A pharmacist will be able to assess you for it here.
The part people miss
Most people know a pharmacy gives flu shots. Far fewer know that if you already have influenza or COVID-19, a pharmacist in Ontario can assess you and prescribe antiviral treatment — no appointment with a doctor first, no referral.
It matters because the treatment only works early. By the time most people decide they are ill enough to do something about it, the window has often closed. That is the whole reason this page exists.
If you think you have flu or COVID, ask on day one or day two. Not on day four, when the answer is likely to be that it is too late for this part of it.
The windows
These are counted from when your symptoms started, not from when you tested or when you got round to asking:
- Influenza — treatment is generally started within about 48 hours of symptoms beginning
- COVID-19 — within five days of symptoms beginning
- Both are assessed on the day you ask, so asking early costs you nothing
Past the window
Still ask. Being outside it changes what is useful, not whether anything is — and if something else is going on, that is worth finding out either way.
What decides whether you qualify
Timing is one gate. For COVID-19 there are two more, and they are the reason we will not promise an outcome before assessing you:
A positive test. A rapid antigen test or a lab test, and the date it was taken. This is a documentation requirement, not a formality we can waive.
Being at higher risk of severe illness. Antiviral treatment for COVID-19 is directed at people more likely to become seriously unwell, which depends on age, pregnancy, immune status and other conditions. Plenty of people who feel dreadful will not meet it, and that is not the pharmacist being difficult.
Influenza is assessed differently, and other things can rule treatment out for either — most often an interaction with something you already take, which is precisely the thing a pharmacy is well placed to notice.
What we will be able to do
- Assess you for antiviral treatment for influenza or COVID-19
- Check it against everything else you take before prescribing it
- Prescribe and dispense in the same visit where you qualify
- Tell you plainly when you do not qualify, and what is worth doing instead
- Send you upstairs, or to an emergency department, when that is the right answer
Kind Clinic is on the second floor of the same building for anything that needs a physician or nurse practitioner. If you are struggling to breathe, or getting worse rather than better, an emergency department is the right answer and not a pharmacy.
Do I need to have tested positive?
For COVID-19, yes — a rapid antigen or lab test, with the date. For influenza, testing is not usually the deciding factor; the assessment is.
Is the treatment free?
The medication is covered for many people through a public drug program, and the assessment itself is not something you are billed for. Coverage and costs covers which program is likely to apply to you.
I am on a lot of other medication. Is that a problem?
It is the single most common reason antiviral treatment gets adjusted or ruled out, and it is the reason to ask a pharmacy rather than guess. Bring your list, or let us pull it up.
Can I get a flu shot at the same time?
Vaccination is a separate conversation from treating an illness you already have — vaccinations covers what we will offer and when.