IDAHO, USA — Idaho Gov. Little is launching three COVID-19 antibody treatment centers to relieve pressure on overcrowded hospitals, including one in the Panhandle.
According to a press release from Gov. Little, the COVID-19 monoclonal antibody treatment facilities will be open in North Idaho, eastern Idaho and the Treasure Valley.
Monoclonal antibody treatment involves therapeutic medications that are proving to be effective in keeping people from getting severely ill and requiring hospitalization after contracting COVID-19.
Monoclonal antibodies are laboratory-made proteins that mimic the immune system’s ability to fight off harmful antigens such as viruses, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This treatment was authorized in May 2021.
According to Kootenai Health's Executive Director of Regional Pharmacy Service Kelley Griffith, the immunity from the virus only lasts for about 30 days and is given through four separate injections. Kootenai Health has been allocated 100 treatments a week but they can ask the state for more.
"We use it in patients who have kind of mild disease," Griffith said. "People that are not hospitalized but that might have risk factor that would make them more likely to become very sick with the disease as COVID progresses."
Griffith said the hospital administered its first treatments on Friday and has proven to be effective so far. She said people with underlying conditions like heart or respiratory issues who've caught the virus early are candidates for the treatment.
”What the vaccine does is stimulate your body to make these antibodies and what we’re doing is we are just giving you the antibodies directly so you have antibodies to help fight the disease right away but that doesn’t meant that you’re not still contagious,” Griffith explained.
North Idaho will be the priority for the treatment centers, where vaccination rates are among the lowest in the state and where local hospitals are overwhelmed with unvaccinated COVID-19 patients, limiting healthcare access for everyone else. The centers will help preserve hospital bed capacity for the severely ill.
Kootenai Health is facing record-breaking hospitalizations. With 96 coronavirus patients at Kootenai Health on Wednesday and 34 in critical care, the previous pandemic record of 91 was broken. That previous wave took more than two months to peak.
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Kootenai Health is reporting 93 hospitalized COVID-19 patients on Thursday, Aug. 26, with 34 of those in critical care.
Patients visiting the antibody treatment centers must have a referral from a doctor and the treatments are free.
More information about locations and timelines will be released in a few days, according to Gov. Little.
Gov. Little also said he is directing $10 million in American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to Idaho hospitals and skilled nursing facilities. The funds will be used to make more physical space available to provide care for COVID-19 patients, address staffing shortages caused by workers getting sick or being exposed to the disease, and safely transition patients out of hospital settings to free up bed capacity, according to the press release.