Australia has purchased 15,000 doses of a breakthrough new COVID-19 treatment, with the nation preparing for increasing infections as restrictions ease.

Early results indicate Ronapreve, developed by pharmaceutical company Roche, has a 70 per cent reduction in the likelihood of hospitalisation or loss of life for people who contract the virus.

It will be available this month to patients in hospital, where it will be given as an intravenous treatment.

In announcing the deal, Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt cautioned that the promising results came from early testing.

"Obviously, these results are to be tested through clinical use," he said.

The first batch of Ronapreve will arrive in Australia by the end of the month, with 5,000 doses in the first shipment.

The federal government has also secured access to half a million doses of another treatment, which is used in combination with the existing Pfizer-developed drug Ritonavir.

While Ronapreve is given the patients intravenously, the Pfizer medication is taken orally.

It is currently being trialled and is yet to go through the approvals process with Australia's medicines regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).

The Commonwealth's Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said adding these drugs to the National Medical Stockpile was necessary as the vaccination program developed and the nation opened up.

"During 2020 and for a large part of 2021, we've very heavily relied on those non-pharmaceutical interventions — the public health and social measures including lockdowns where necessary, the test, trace, isolate and quarantine work of our tireless public health workforce, as well as the international border [closure]," he said.

"There are ways of preventing the illness — and absolutely the first way and most important way for that is [a] vaccine.

"But there are now treatments that are being developed, antiviral treatments that will actually assist to prevent infection, or prevent even mild or asymptomatic infection and disease."

The federal government has also purchased 300,000 doses of the drug molnupiravir, which is expected to be used from next year, and 31,000 doses of sotrovimab.

Federal, state and territory governments are expecting COVID-19 infections to rise as Australians can travel more freely.

It is prompting concerns the nation's hospital system will struggle to cope with demand.