AUSTIN (WBAP/KLIF) – A COVID-19 therapy will be distributed to acute care hospitals statewide as early as next week.
Governor Greg Abbott announced on Friday that the Texas Department of State Health Services is allocating an initial shipment of Eli Lily & Company’s monoclonal antibody therapy bamlanivimab.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will provide the weekly shipments of doses at no cost to Texas.
DSHS is basing the initial shipment on three criteria: new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the community, new lab-confirmed COVID-19 hospital admissions and total lab-confirmed COVID-19 patients in hospitals.
Governor Abbott said the treatments will help Texas in its ongoing battle with COVID-19.
“This initial allotment of bamlanivimab will help health care professionals effectively treat cases of COVID-19 within their communities and aid in reducing hospitalizations,” he said. “I thank the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for providing Texas with this crucial antibody therapy that will help keep Texans safe and mitigate the spread of COVID-19.”
Bamlanivimab is for outpatients use for COVID-19 patients who are at increased risk of severe disease.
Abbott said it has been shown to prevent hospitalizations in some patients when used before they become very sick.
Texas recently surpassed one million COVID-19 cases.
So far more than 19,000 Texans have died and more than 838,000 have recovered since the pandemic hit in March.
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