Peterborough woman 'back to normal' after new Covid-19 therapy

Kelly Irvine she "was a bit worried" after she contracted the virus a few days after her husband

A clinically vulnerable woman who had Covid-19 said she felt "totally back to normal" within two days of receiving a new drug therapy.

Kelly Irvine, from Peakirk near Peterborough, has arthritis and was the first North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust patient to receive Sotrovimab.

The one-off 50ml (1.7oz) infusion of antibodies is being offered to patients at the highest risk of Covid-19.

The trust's chief medical officer said it was a "very exciting" treatment.

She was the trust's first outpatient to receive the intravenous drug, which took about half an hour

Ms Irvine, who has been triple-vaccinated against Covid, is on medication for arthritis which supresses her immune system.

She said she had been very "cautious" since the pandemic began, with her husband doing all the shopping, but tested positive for the virus in December.

"I got a phone call within a matter of hours about [the therapy] and I was very surprised at how quickly it all progressed," she said.

She received the drug at a specialist outpatients clinic in Peterborough.

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The first batch of Sotrovimab became available to the trust on 20 December and Ms Irvine received it two days later, according to chief medical officer Dr Kanchan Rege.

She said: "It has been very exciting, but it has also been lots of hard work by various different people actually building a service from scratch at such short notice, but I have been thrilled to be able to offer it to our patients."

Dr Kanchan Rege said the therapy is being offered to patients on immunosuppressants or chemotherapy

The drug, which the NHS says is effective against the Omicron strain, is being rolled out in the city because "during the pandemic most cases have actually been around Peterborough".

Ms Irvine said she had not been worried about taking the new drug.

"I rely on the NHS to treat my condition and I trust them and the service I've been given," she said.

"It was a half-hour infusion, a short wait afterwards and no, I didn't have any side effects at all... within two days I was totally back to normal."