State to get 15K more Regeneron doses
TALLAHASSEE — Florida is receiving 15,000 new doses of Regeneron, the monoclonal antibody treatment used to combat COVID-19, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday.
The doses from the federal government come after DeSantis pushed President Joe Biden to allow the states to purchase the treatments on their own. That hasn’t happened, but the new doses are coming.
“Before the Biden Administration seized control of the monoclonal supply after Florida pioneered its widespread use and demonstrated its efficacy, approximately 30,000 doses per week were being administered to Floridians, saving countless lives,” DeSantis said in a released statement. “We will rapidly deploy the 15,000 doses that we have now secured, but the Biden Administration is still obstructing the state of Florida’s ability to manage our own supply of monoclonal antibodies and I will continue to seek additional doses for Floridians.”
DeSantis has said he was waiting on the new doses before the state could set up treatment sites throughout the state. He hasn’t yet said where new sites would be set up now that the new doses have been received.
A DeSantis spokeswoman did not immediately return an email asking where the sites would be placed.
The status of the monoclonal antibody treatments has been a hot topic for DeSantis, who has continued to slam the Biden administration for taking control over the supply in the fall.
In a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Beccera on Wednesday, Florida Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie offered to use state resources to help ferry the drugs to the Sunshine State. The letter also stated his agency had identified potential sites for treatment centers in Broward, Collier, Duval, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Seminole counties but didn’t give specific locations.
The move comes as the omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus has surged through the state, boosting cases and straining the state’s testing and treatment resources.
The seven-day average caseload shot up from about 2,500 in mid-December to about 58,000 as of Thursday.