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(WSIL) -- Southern Illinois Healthcare (SIH) says they are changing the way they distribute and use antibody treatments to fight COVID-19. 

Dr. Joshua Miksanek, an emergency room physician and medical director of SIH Herrin Hospital emergency department, says the monoclonal antibody treatments have no effect on the Omicron variant. But the treatment does work on the Delta variant. 

The state says despite the current low Omicron case number, Illinois could see a spike in the coming weeks as it becomes the dominant variant.

As of January 3, 2022, the state had 28,000+ new cases of COVID-19. Of those, more than 26,000 were Delta and just over 700 were tied to Omicron. 

SIH says 80-percent of the new cases they have gotten may be from the Omicron variant.

They say they'll use what's left of the antibody treatments to battle the remaining Delta variant cases, to make room for more supplies. 

"The federal government disperses them to the state and the state disperses them to us. So we knew a few weeks ago the state would stop dispersing the antibodies and we would run out of them. So we made a decision to not hand them out knowing that when Omicron took over from the Delta it would be little benefit to anybody if we had any left over," said Dr. Miksanek.

A small supply of another antibody drug made by GlaxoSmithKline has proven to be effective against the Omicron variant. A small supply of that drug is available and Illinois has been given its allotment, which will be sent to local hospitals soon. 

SIH also says they have seen record numbers in the last few days, with more than 1,300 new cases last week. That is up roughly 250% from the prior week. Health officials say most of the cases are mild.

They are stressing the importance of getting test if you believe you have symptoms. They have , but lines can be long. 

Health officials say the best thing to do is schedule an appointment. If you decide to use an at-home testing kit, there's a good rule to go by. 

"The at-home tests some of the ones you can get at the store, those aren't perfect, but they're better than nothing. I would say, if you were gonna get an at-home test, if you get a negative, it's not as accurate as a positive. If you get a positive, you can feel pretty confident your positive. If you get a negative, and you have symptoms of COVID or were around someone who has COVID, you should probably retest in a few days. And still be careful up to that point," explained Miksanek.

Testing is available through SIH, 7-days a week. There are four locations between Marion, Carbondale and Harrisburg. 

for that list of locations.