During a news conference Thursday, Dr. Erin McCreary, of UPMC, said COVID-19 cases are climbing across all of the communities that the health care system serves.

A UPMC official said hospitalizations for COVID-19 in the health care system are at the highest level since last winter.

Dr. Erin McCreary, director of antimicrobial stewardship innovation and an infectious diseases pharmacist at UPMC, said COVID-19 cases are climbing across all the communities that UPMC serves.

“The more cases we have in the community, the more severe cases we are going to see,” she said during a news conference Thursday morning.

McCreary said the health care system is much better prepared to help patients avoid hospitalization now. She encouraged everyone to complete a COVID-19 vaccination series as soon as possible.

“There is no time to wait as we head into what we anticipate will be a difficult winter,” she said. “Vaccination continues to be the safest and most effective way to protect yourself and your loved ones from COVID-19.”

During the news conference, UPMC officials shared results of a study examining different ways of administering monoclonal antibody treatment for COVID-19, and encouraged people again to get vaccinated and follow masking protocols.Alongside vaccination, McCreary recommended robust testing if you have symptoms, and seeking monoclonal antibody treatment if qualified.Dr. Donald Yealy, chief medical officer at UPMC, said that safety measures keep individuals and the community healthy.“Right now, our biggest challenge — and it is a very big one — is hospital capacity,” he said. “Our COVID-19 inpatient volume is climbing, but so are visits for other important health issues. A nationwide staffing shortage makes the situation even more challenging.”Yealy said seasonal flu cases are rapidly climbing, and that the busy emergency departments of UPMC may become more crowded as COVID-19 and flu cases coincide.“We're determined to provide the right care for you at the right time,” he said. “We want to do the best for the most people.”

Results of research announced Thursday and published in the preprint journal medRxiv found that giving monoclonal antibodies to outpatients through four subcutaneous injections works as effectively to prevent hospitalization and death as does giving monoclonal antibodies through IV infusions.Both IV infusions and subcutaneous injections are superior to not having any monoclonal antibody treatment at all.Monoclonal antibodies are a one-time treatment that must be given quickly after a COVID-19 diagnosis, and authorized for people with mild to moderate COVID-19 symptoms who have certain characteristics such as immunocompromised conditions or advanced age.The treatment can significantly decrease hospitalizations and deaths from the coronavirus.The study is the first clinical study to compare the different methods of administering the antibodies.The results are significant, McCreary said, because injections given under the skin can be given over less time and are easier to administer than IV infusions.“We can more than double the number of patients that we treat this way, helping ensure that we are treating as many patients as possible, and saving as many lives as possible,” she said.

Dr. Graham Snyder, UPMC's medical director of infection prevention and hospital epidemiology, said that with the advent of the omicron variant, UPMC is poised to continue research and treatment.“Our data analytics team has tracked COVID-19 trends with each surge and each variant and will continue to do that when omicron arrives in our region,” Snyder said. “We can use the strength of our robust health care databases to know who is most vulnerable to infections and complications and how well treatments work.”Snyder said that there is still a lot unknown about the new variant.“There is a lot that we have yet to learn about omicron, including who is most likely to get sick, what are the patterns of illness it causes, how effectively and rapidly it spreads and how well prepared we remain through vaccines and treatments like monoclonal antibodies,” he said. “As UPMC contributes answers to these questions, we know that omicron, like delta before it, will not change what we need to do to stay safe.”He again encouraged the public to wear masks, to protect against both COVID-19 and the flu, and to get vaccinated against both the flu and COVID-19.