Holiday hours announced for COVID-19 monoclonal antibody treatment sites
Published 3:20 pm Tuesday, December 14, 2021
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BATON ROUGE — The Louisiana community-based monoclonal antibody (mAb) treatment sites will temporarily close at various times during the holidays.
In addition, two sites will permanently close: Lafayette’s Blackham Coliseum will end operations on December 15 and the site at Big Lots in Thibodaux will do so on December 30.
Christmas Closures
The following sites will be closed on December 24 and will reopen at 7 a.m. on December 26:
Westwego: Segnette Field; south of John Alario Event Center
Houma: Houma Municipal Community Center
Thibodaux: Big Lots (closes permanently on December 23)
Natchitoches: Troy Mayeaux Ball Field parking lot (within East Natchitoches Recreation Complex)
Shreveport: Sci-port Discovery Center Mobile Unit
Amite: Florida Parishes Arena
The following sites will close on December 24 and will reopen at 7 a.m. on December 27:
Baton Rouge: Baton Rouge General Mid-City
Clinton: Clinton Alternative Learning Center
Acadiana: Rayne Civic Center
New Year’s Closures
For the New Year’s holiday, all sites will close at 2 p.m. on December 30 and reopen at 7 a.m. on January 2.
All monoclonal antibody treatment sites are currently open 7 days a week from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Monoclonal antibody treatment
Monoclonal antibodies are man-made antibodies produced in a laboratory that can mimic the human immune system response to infection. mAbs are designed to block viral attachment and entry into human cells, thus neutralizing the virus that causes COVID-19.
Patients need to be referred by their doctor or other healthcare provider to a facility that offers mAb therapy such as a hospital or an infusion center. Walk-ins are also accepted at the new community sites; however, walk-in patients must have a positive COVID-19 viral test.
Patients with a positive COVID-19 viral test should speak with their healthcare provider to determine whether they are eligible for mAb treatment and to discuss potential benefits and side effects.
Monoclonal antibody treatments may be used for the treatment of mild to moderate COVID-19 in adults and pediatric patients who are within 10 days of the start of their symptoms, at least 12 years of age or older and weigh at least 40 kilograms (88 pounds), and are at a high risk for progressing to severe COVID-19 and/or hospitalization.
The federal government has developed a national map that displays locations with shipments of monoclonal antibody therapeutics under FDA EUA authority, within the past several weeks. The scalable map is at https://protect-public.hhs.gov/pages/therapeutics-distribution.
A call center is also available to answer questions and provide information related to monoclonal antibody therapeutic treatments at 1-877-332-6585 (English language); 1-877-366-0310 (Spanish language).