LAKELAND, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES – 2021/09/07: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis speaks at a press conference at the Lakeland, Florida Police Department to announce a new proposal that would provide $5,000 signing bonuses to those who sign on to be law enforcement officers from within the state of Florida, and those who come from out-of-state.
The plan would also pay up to $1,000 for training and relocation, and would set up a scholarship to pay the cost for the law enforcement academy. (Photo by Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Gov. Ron DeSantis said Florida has secured a small shipment of monoclonal antibodies as he says the federal allotment to the state will continue to be reduced next week.
Speaking at a news conference in Tampa Thursday, DeSantis said the state will be receiving about 3,000 does of the new monoclonal antibody treatment from GlaxoSmithKline.
DeSantis said the state acquired the treatments to try to make up for reductions in federal allotments of the monoclonal antibodies.
Less than 18,000 doses of Regeneron's monoclonal antibodies are expected to arrive from the federal government next week, DeSantis said.
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DeSantis said it's a dramatic reduction from just a couple weeks ago, when the federal government was sending Florida more than 40,000 treatments per week.
Health and Human Services officials said they were changing the system for allocating monoclonal antibodies to maintain an equitable distribution of the treatments.
The governor has championed the use of monoclonal antibodies to fight COVID-19, and Florida has opened more than 25 sites throughout the state to administer the treatments.
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But DeSantis said the reduction in treatments from the feds could force the state to possibly close some of those sites.
DeSantis said the use of the treatments has helped reduce COVID hospitalizations in the state, which peaked amid the Delta outbreak in August.
