SAN ANTONIO – A COVID-19 antibody treatment center is opening Tuesday at Freeman Coliseum.
During a news conference Monday, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said the facility will have 143 beds where patients can receive an antibody infusion with the drug regeneron.
Wolff said last year over 3,000 patients received the treatment, which helped prevent them from being hospitalized.
As of Monday, more than 1,100 patients are hospitalized in San Antonio with COVID-19, with about 88% percent of them not vaccinated.
San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg, who was also at the news conference, said the center is needed at a critical point in the pandemic.
“We are seeing accelerating numbers in our hospitals. Extremely dangerous, not just for the people that are in the hospital, but those around them and our medical community that has been overstressed now for the last 18 months,” he said.
The antibody treatment is provided free to COVID-19 positive patients who are at high risk of getting severely sick. Patients will need to get a doctor’s recommendation to get the treatment, which only has emergency-use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Patients do not have to be from Bexar County to be treated.
The center is among five in Texas and will be open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Related Stories: