BEAUMONT, Texas — The Southeast Texas Regional Infusion Center in Beaumont has reopened.
It closed Wednesday when they ran out of treatment drugs. There's still a waiting list with roughly 600 people. This week, the center only has enough medication to treat a third of them.
They're having to prioritize those who need it most.
Priority is based on things like age, weight, underlying conditions, and whether someone is immunocompromised.
Although supply has diminished and some people are being turned away, officials say the infusion center has still had a massive impact.
"It’s tremendous,” said Todd Senters, vice president of operations at Baptist Hospitals. “I don’t know if you can put a number or a value on what this particular treatment facility has meant for this community, because of the fact that all of our medical facilities were in a true crisis."
Officials say the plan is to keep the infusion center open as long as possible, but it all comes down to the supply of medicines they get from the federal government.
New cases and hospitalizations keep declining in Southeast Texas. We have only 120 COVID-19 patients in the hospitals in Jefferson County on Thursday. That's 11 fewer than Wednesday.
