ROCHESTER, Minn. ― In an observational study, Mayo Clinic researchers report that the combination of casirivimab and imdevimab ― two monoclonal antibody treatments under Food and Drug Administration emergency use authorization ― keep high-risk patients out of the hospital when infected with mild to moderate COVID-19. The findings appear in The Lancet's EClinicalMedicine.
To maximize protection from the COVID-19 delta variant and limit the spread of COVID-19 to others, health experts continue to urge that people get vaccinated for COVID-19 and wear a mask indoors in public in areas of substantial or high transmission.
U.S. hospitalizations for patients with COVID-19 have risen almost 500% over the past two months, according to news reports. Also, the number of ICU beds in the South is dwindling. "We have over 101,000 Americans in the hospital with COVID-19," says Dr. Gregory Poland, an infectious diseases expert and head of Mayo Clinic's Vaccine Research Group. "Many of them fighting for their lives in ICUs and on ventilators. We are having over 160,000 new cases and just below 1,000 deaths reported each day."