Schneck Medical Center officials shared two doses of good news during Monday night’s hospital board of trustees meeting.

First, the Indiana State Department of Health notified the Seymour hospital it soon will become a 1B vaccination site, meaning it can administer the COVID-19 vaccine to those at higher risk of getting the virus.

Second, the hospital has seen promising results treating COVID-19 patients with monoclonal antibody therapy, said Dr. Eric Fish, president and chief executive officer of Schneck.

The same information was shared by Stacy East, infection preventionist at Schneck, during the hospital’s weekly COVID-19 community update Tuesday.

East said the hospital is experiencing a decrease in the number of patients admitted with COVID.

“In the last several days, we’ve been anywhere between five to nine patients, and in the last probably about four days, we have been between five and six patients,” she said. “So we definitely have seen a great improvement here at Schneck.”

She hopes that improvement continues as the hospital begins administering the vaccine next week.

Susan Zabor, vice president of clinical and provider management and chief quality officer for Schneck, said the hospital has been notified of its projected allocation of the vaccine per week.

“We’re kind of just hanging tight until we actually get the shipment to release when we’ll be open for vaccination, what days of the week, what hours,” she said.

It’s another opportunity for the hospital to help protect and move the community closer to post-pandemic.

“We’re excited about that to be able to really get that immunization in people’s arms and get it more in our community,” Zabor said.

As of Monday morning, 1,630 Jackson County residents have received the first dose of the vaccine, either at the Jackson County Health Department or in another county, and 339 are fully vaccinated with both doses, East said.

Matt Reedy, president of the Jackson County Commissioners and a member of the hospital board, said the Jackson County Fairgrounds in Brownstown could be used as a drive-thru vaccine clinic site if needed. Seymour Community School Corp. also has agreed to let the health department use the Seymour High School student parking lot for a clinic site if needed.

The local vaccination effort is being completely driven by the Indiana State Department of Health, Fish said. That entity determines what ages can get the vaccine, which currently is those 70 and older, based on allotments and availability. He expects those 60 and older will be eligible in the next week or two.

With the monoclonal antibody therapy, Fish said since the first part of December 2020, Schneck has administered both Bamlanivimab and Regeneron to treat COVID-19 in 248 patients.

Antibodies are proteins produced by the body’s immune system in response to antigens (harmful substances like viruses). Monoclonal antibodies are produced in the lab with cloned immune cells.

The treatment is intended to impact advancing illness in patients with mild to moderate COVID-19 who are at high risk for progression to severe COVID-19 and/or hospitalization.

Since the normal hospitalization rate for COVID-positive patients is generally around 15%, Fish said they expected around 37 people to be hospitalized; however, that number was only four.

“And those people have been discharged very quickly with no long-term issues,” he said. “We believe that’s one of the reasons since about the first week of December we’ve continued to see that steady decline.”

To be eligible for the monoclonal antibody therapy, patients must meet at least one of the following criteria: A body mass index greater or equal to 35, chronic kidney disease, diabetes, immunosuppressive disease, current immunosuppressive treatment, age 65 or older or age 55 years or older with cardiovascular disease, hypertension or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

COVID-positive patients who meet the criteria should talk to their health care provider about receiving monoclonal antibody therapy, Fish said.

Providers can order the therapy, which is administered in the Schneck Infusion Center. After business hours, patients can receive treatment through the emergency department if they meet the established criteria. Indiana hospitals receive allocations of the therapy through the state health department.

“We believe based on our numbers and what we have seen, this has had a major impact in reducing our hospitalizations in the area,” Fish said.

As of Monday, Schneck only had six inpatients with COVID-19, which Fish said was the lowest census in a couple of months.

“Positive tests throughout the community have gone down, as well, which has been good,” he said.

Dr. Christopher Bunce, public health officer for the Jackson County Health Department, said he believes there is now room for some “cautious optimism” based on the fact the county’s positivity and hospitalization rates are going down.

“We have not seen an anticipated post-Christmas surge that we were worrying about and that we saw after Thanksgiving,” he said. “Those peak rates that occurred in early to mid-December have not resurfaced, so that’s good news.”

He also said the hospital is managing COVID better by using the monoclonal antibody therapy so patients aren’t having to be hospitalized.

“We don’t have definitive proof that’s the reason our hospital COVID census is down, but we strongly suspect that it is,” he said.

Bunce applauded the community for their ongoing efforts to take the needed precautions to minimize the spread of the virus.

“Keep up the good work,” he said. “Whatever we’re doing, the community is doing a better job preventing transmission, there’s no doubt about it.”