DUBAI: High-risk patients including adults, pregnant women and children 12 years old and above with mild to moderate COVID-19 infections – and who were at risk having their symptoms progress to severe ones – were saved from possible death by having the anti-viral medicine Sotrovimab.
A two-week evaluation, wherein 6,175 COVID-19 patients in Abu Dhabi received Sotrovimab, showed that a 100 percent prevention of death among recipients and and 99 percent prevention of admission to intensive care units, UAE health officials said in a report from state news agency WAM.
They also noted that 97 percent of the patients fully recovered within 14 days.
About 52 per cent of the patients were aged 50 or above, and almost all recipients had multiple comorbidities including obesity, cancer, cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
Sotrovimab, a monoclonal antibody treatment delivered through intravenous therapy, is being produced by global biopharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline.
The Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHAP) has approved the use of Sotrovimab after conducting local evaluation. It has also been approved for emergency use by the US Food and Drug Administration.
The UAE was one of the first countries in the world to receive a shipment of Sotrovimab in mid-June.
Meanwhile, additional 1,565 new COVID-19 infections and four deaths were reported overnight, bringing the UAE’s caseload to 659,449 cases including 1,896 fatalities.
MoHAP also reported that 1,508 individuals had fully recovered from the coronavirus disease, for a total number of recoveries of 637,267.
The total number of administered COVID-19 vaccine doses is now at 16,341,613, for a rate of vaccine distribution of 165.23 doses per 100 people, after 78,028 jabs were done during past 24 hours.
