The city of Dalton’s Regeneron treatment clinic took its first official appointments Friday, just two days after the city announced it would be the first in the state to offer free monoclonal antibody treatment to people in the early stages of COVID-19 infection.
All appointment slots for Friday were filled within the first hour of treatments being made available on the city’s website, spokesperson Bruce Frazier said Monday. Sixty people were treated the first day, and appointments have been full since with 60-80 people being seen every day, he said. For those arriving to receive treatment, the therapy they are getting – REGEN-COV from the biotechnology company Regeneron – is not intended as a vaccination or preventative measure. It is designed to hopefully boost the recipient’s immune system enough to keep them out of the hospital after a positive diagnosis.
The treatment, which the Food and Drug Administration approved under “emergency use” provisions of federal law, has been shown in clinical studies to help reduce hospitalization and death caused by the novel coronavirus by as much as 71%.
According to Dalton City Council member Annalee Harlan, the monoclonal antibodies are given through a series of four back-to-back injections to the abdomen, all given during the same visit. As they start to work, the COVID-19 monoclonal antibodies in the injections mimic the immune system’s ability to fight off harmful pathogens such as viruses. Casirivimab and imdevimab are monoclonal antibodies that are “specifically directed” against SARS-COV-2 and designed to “block the virus’ attachment and entry into human cells,” the FDA said in a November 2020 news release related to Regeneron’s emergency-use approval.
The treatment requires a one hour observation period and should be received within seven days of a COVID-19 diagnosis for best results.