Dr Rachel Sackrowitz, executive vice chair of the Department of Critical Care Medicine at UPMC, speaks at a news conference Wednesday.

UPMC trials have found that monoclonal antibodies, a treatment that must be given quickly after a COVID-19 diagnosis, can significantly decrease hospitalizations and deaths from the coronavirus.

At a news conference Wednesday morning, UPMC Executive Vice President Dr. Derek C. Angus said that 70% of UPMC COVID-19 inpatients could have avoided hospitalization if they were treated with monoclonal antibodies.

UPMC has treated about 5,700 patients with monoclonal antibodies so far.

“We have found them to be remarkably safe and remarkably effective, and we want to give them to those that are eligible,” Angus said.

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