DCH Coronavirus Update 1-5-21

Outpatient Antibody Infusion Is Available at DCH for Eligible COVID-19 Positive Patients

The FDA has issued an Emergency Use Authorization for the Lilly product bamlanivimab and the Regeneron product casirivimab/imdevimab for treating individuals who have tested positive for COVID-19 but have mild to moderate symptoms and are at risk of progressing to severe COVID-19 or hospitalization. This treatment is in limited supply and is only available in an outpatient setting to patients who do not require oxygen therapy due to COVID-19.

DCH is providing this treatment in a clinic setting on its Northport Medical Center campus. Patients must have a physician referral and must be at an elevated risk of developing a more severe case.

For COVID-19 positive adults, this treatment may be an option if you

• are age 65 or older
• have obesity, with a body mass index (BMI) of 35 or higher
• have diabetes, chronic kidney disease, or a condition that weakens the immune system
• take medication that weakens the immune system
• are age 55 or older and have heart disease, high blood pressure, or a long-term lung disease

If you think you may be a candidate for the treatment please contact your physician.

Testing and Confirmed Cases

To protect patient privacy, DCH has established a minimum threshold of five for reporting numbers of inpatients with laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19.

DCH Health System internal counts as of 3:40 p.m. on 1/5/20:

• 176 inpatients within the DCH system who are positive for COVID-19.
• 39 inpatients who are positive for COVID-19 are being treated in the ICU.
• 14 who are positive for COVID-19 are on ventilators.
• 23 who are positive for COVID-19 are on a BiPAP.
• We are conducting some maintenance to the feed for unique positive and negative tests for COVID-19 so that chart and those numbers are not included today.
• 7,099 (cumulative) unique positives for COVID-19 tests including results from the ED, triage tent and inpatient. These individuals are not necessarily in the hospital.
• 33,168 (cumulative) unique negatives for COVID-19 at DCH sites.
• 8,554 (cumulative) positive COVID-19 at DCH sites. These individuals are not necessarily in the hospital.
• 57,607 (cumulative) negative tests at DCH sites.
• 2,140 inpatients (cumulative) who were positive for COVID-19 have been discharged.
• 377 inpatients (cumulative) who were positive for COVID-19 have died at DCH. This is not an indication of the cause of death, only that the individuals were positive for COVID-19 at the time of death.
• 155 Tuscaloosa County residents (cumulative) who were positive for COVID-19 have died (per the Alabama Department of Public Health).