(AP) — Hawaiʻi health care providers are receiving half the number of monoclonal antibody treatments for COVID-19 that they requested amid a shortage of the drugs. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports the federal government has capped Hawaiʻi’s weekly allocation at 680 treatments. The state will have to wait and see whether it can get more supply in the coming weeks. There has been a spike in demand for the drugs in states where where surging hospitalizations among the unvaccinated have overwhelmed health care systems. The treatments have been shown to reduce death and hospitalization if given early. The drugs are laboratory-made versions of virus-blocking antibodies that help fight infections.

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