Governor Roy Cooper signed an executive order expanding access to monoclonal antibody treatments that have the potential to prevent people from dying of COVID-19. The emergency-use treatment is used on high-risk COVID-19 patients who experience symptoms within 10 days of testing positive. This treatment is reported to be similar to what was used on former President Donald Trump when he had COVID-19.
“It’s been designed to attach to the virus so that it doesn’t hurt you any longer,” said David Wohl, MD, professor medicine in the division of infectious diseases. “And in clinical trials, it reduces the risk of ending up in an emergency room or the hospital by about 70 percent.”