Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Monday that the federal government has agreed to send more monoclonal antibody treatments to Florida, with new sites ready to open in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.
DeSantis said he expects Florida to receive 30,000 to 40,000 doses. The new treatment sites are ready to go up immediately, as soon as the new doses arrive, he said.
“Those sites will be up the next day,” he said at a news conference at Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale at a lectern with a sign that said, “Early Treatment Saves Lives.”
“It’s all locked and loaded. It’s just a matter of the federal government giving us more doses to be able to administer for the Floridians who need it.”
Monoclonal antibodies are created in laboratories and administered to patients to prevent COVID from becoming severe. They block the COVID virus from entering the body’s cells, making it more likely the patient will experience a mild case.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services paused the distribution of antibody treatments made by Regeneron and Eli Lilly, saying they were less effective against the omicron variant which has fueled the recent surge in COVID-19 cases.
The federal agency later revised that order saying the pause would only apply to states where Omicron made up at least 80 percent of COVID-19 cases.
“Yesterday HHS decided to reverse course and they are going to be sending these treatments,” DeSantis said. “I think that’s the right thing to do.”
The governor’s news conference came as Florida experienced record numbers of new COVID cases, with the highly contagious omicron variant spreading rapidly through the state. DeSantis noted delta is still present in Florida as well.
“Omicron is not the only variant out there and [Regeneron] is something we have seen applied with omicron patients, and we have seen symptoms resolved. It may not be as good as it was against Delta but we obviously want to have it here for patients to have it,” he said.
“This shortsightedness is especially evident given that the federal government effectively prohibited states from purchasing these monoclonal antibodies and serving their populations directly.”
DeSantis said Florida had contracted directly with the manufacturer of Sotrovimab, which is thought to be the most effective monoclonal antibodies treatment against omicron.
That is no longer a possibility because the feds have an exclusive arrangement.” The governor said the Florida Legislature has set aside $1 billion to use once the state is able to directly purchase monoclonal antibody treatments from the distributor.
The governor also said he would like to eventually have the technology to sequence the virus at treatment sites to determine which monoclonal antibodies to give a COVID patient. “It’s something I have asked Dr. Ladapo to look into bringing together with some of our treatment sites so we can focus treatments the best way we can.”
At Broward Health, where DeSantis’ news briefing took place Monday, Dr. Joshua Lenchus, chief medical officer, said his hospital continues giving out Regeneron’s antibodies treatments.
“The data continues to underscore the incredible effectiveness of these medications. The fact that delta continues to have a formidable presence in Florida makes it important we reiterate the need to continue to ask for monoclonal antibodies.”
Other key DeSantis and his top official’s announcements during the news briefing addressed everything from COVID treatments to hospitalizations.
