One of two buses rolling around Colorado to administer a highly effective treatment to COVID-19 patients launched at The Citadel mall Monday.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment has opened two treatment sites that will serve COVID-19 patients who are referred by a doctor and need the monoclonal antibody treatments the vans will provide. The state health department plans to eventually open up three additional mobile sites, for a total of five statewide, a department spokeswoman said.

The treatment can sometimes be difficult to get, but it can keep COVID-19 patients from needing hospital care and potentially reduce the strain on local hospitals that are already delaying some procedures to preserve their ability to treat patients, health officials said.

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“We’re just focused on making widely available all of the different prevention and treatment options for people,” said Michelle Beyrle, spokeswoman for El Paso County Public Health. “We are just happy to have this additional resource and hope that it will help reduce the risk of severe illness and hospitalizations.”

Monoclonal antibody treatments introduce manmade antibodies into the patient’s body that then attack the spike protein of the virus, said Dr. Richard Vu of the Matthews-Vu Medical Group. Vu is also a member of the El Paso County Board of Health.

“It’s a life saving treatment,” Vu said. “… It’s very, very effective for patients with mild to moderate disease and has been shown to decrease hospitalizations.”

In Colorado Springs the treatments can be hard to get because only a handful of clinics and hospitals offer it and the supply of monoclonal antibodies is scarce. Plus, administering monoclonal antibodies poses a challenge because it requires intravenous infusion instead of simply taking a pill, Vu said.  

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“The mobile clinic bus will add to that supply in treatment and increase that availability for Colorado Springs,” Vu said.

The mobile clinic comes as hospitalizations around the state continue to rise, with 1,184 people hospitalized statewide Monday afternoon, state data showed. As of Friday, 213 people were hospitalized with the disease in El Paso County, local data show. Those numbers are likely to worsen in coming weeks as holiday celebrations add to the virus’ spread, The Gazette reported.

Vu, as well as local and state health officials, emphasized Monday that while monoclonal antibodies are a highly effective treatment strategy, they are not the same as preventative care, such as getting vaccinated. While vaccines have become readily available, more than 35% of the county is not fully vaccinated.

“This is another tool in the toolbox,” Jared Verner, spokesman for El Paso County Public Health, said. “But obviously vaccination is still the best one.”

Appointments for the mobile treatment site are available to patients who test positive for COVID-19 and receive a referral from a doctor.

The treatment site will operate from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday this week, officials said. Treatments typically take one hour. El Paso County Public Health officials were unsure if the bus would remain at The Citadel mall site beyond this week.