With a week to go until Thanksgiving, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is asking people to keep their guard up as the number of coronavirus cases in the state continues to rise.

Greg Abbott announced Friday that the Texas Department of State Health Services is going to distribute a COVID-19 antibody therapy to hospitals across Texas. Abbott’s office said it is allocating an initial shipment of Bamlanivimab, the Eli Lilly & Company monoclonal antibody therapy, to be distributed as early as next week to acute care hospitals across the state. Bamlanivimab is for outpatient use in people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and are at increased risk of severe disease. Abbott’s office said DSHS will allocate this initial distribution of Bamlanivimab based on three criteria: new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the community, new lab-confirmed COVID-19 admissions to hospitals, and total lab-confirmed COVID-19 patients in hospitals. “I thank the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for providing Texas with this crucial antibody therapy that will help keep Texans safe and mitigate the spread of COVID-19.”

On Monday, Nov. 9, 2020, the Food and Drug Administration cleared emergency use of Bamlanivimab, the first antibody drug to help the immune system fight COVID-19. The drug is for people 12 and older with mild or moderate COVID-19 not requiring hospitalization. The Food and Drug Administration on Monday cleared the experimental drug from Eli Lilly for people 12 and older with mild or moderate COVID-19 not requiring hospitalization. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. also has asked for emergency authorization for an antibody drug it is testing, the one Trump received. FDA regulators authorized the Lilly drug using their emergency powers to quickly speed the availability of experimental drugs and other medical products during public health crises.