AUSTIN – Governor Greg Abbott on Friday announced that the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) and the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) will deploy additional medical personnel and launch more COVID-19 antibody infusion centers across the state over the next week.

“Front-line health care workers across our state are working tirelessly to keep Texans healthy and safe,” said Governor Abbott. “The substantial increase of infusion centers will reduce hospitalizations, and the added medical personnel will help treat COVID-19 patients already in hospitals. Hospitalizations can also be prevented by Texans getting the COVID-19 vaccine. To find a vaccine provider near you, visit covidvaccine.texas.gov.”

About 2,700 medical personnel will be called up by the end of this week to help hospitals care for the increasing number of COVID-19 patients across Texas. DSHS will increase that to at least 5,500 by the end of next week. This operation follows the Governor’s directive on August 9th that DSHS utilize staffing agencies to provide out-of-state medical personnel to Texas health care facilities to mitigate the surge of COVID-19 cases in Texas. The additional deployment of personnel will be fully funded by the state through September 30.

TDEM will launch two new regional infusion centers in Beaumont and Odessa by next week. Odessa will launch tomorrow and Beaumont will launch on Monday. DSHS will open COVID-19 antibody infusion centers in Fort Worth and Laredo tomorrow morning. These infusion centers are in addition to several others that launched across the state last week including Austin, Corpus Christi, Conroe, Harlingen, and Lubbock. 

These infusion centers, equipped with Regeneron’s monoclonal antibodies, will treat COVID-19 patients at no cost with therapeutic drugs that can prevent their condition from worsening and requiring hospital care. These centers also help increase bed capacity in hospitals so that resources are available for the most ill patients. The State deployed similar measures in early 2021 to communities across Texas. Patients must have a referral from a doctor.

Currently, there are more than 140 providers that are providing antibody treatments at hospitals and clinics across the state.