The FDA published an interview with Dr. John Farley, director of the Office of Infectious Diseases at the FDA, in which he addressed this matter. He stated that in clinical studies conducted by Pfizer, 1-2% of those treated with Paxlovid tested positive for COVID-19 after testing negative. The company pointed out that patients who took a placebo also tested positive, adding that it was unclear if the recurrence of symptoms was related to the drug. The report also highlighted that those who took Paxlovid did not have a higher rate of hospitalization or death.
Because of the low rate of reinfection, experts still recommend the drug as a treatment to prevent severe COVID-19 for some patients. That said, the Pfizer explained in a press release that Paxlovid is not approved for initial treatment for patients requiring hospitalization due to severe or critical COVID-19, nor is it approved for use as “pre-exposure or post-exposure prophylaxis for prevention of COVID-19.”