The Health Department reported Sunday that Flagler County had 38 new Covid-19 cases in a single day, beating the previous single-day record set just two days earlier by 12. Flagler has seen 157 new cases in the past seven days, a quarter of its total since March, and by far the fastest rate of new infections since the pandemic began, with a positivity rate of 10.6 percent.
Two more employees at local assisted living facilities have tested positive: one at Gentle Care Assisted Living, a group home in the Woodlands neighborhood of the Palm Coast, and one at Sabal Palms Assisted Living on the Palm Harbor Parkway in PA. Home installations are under a state mandate to conduct Covid testing every two weeks.
Palm Coast has most of the Covid cases, with a cumulative total of 447 so far, Bunnell has 60, Flagler Beach 54, and Beverly Beach one. On Friday, the head of the Flagler Health Department, Bob Snyder, said there were 16 Covid-related hospitalizations at AdventHealth Palm Coast. Today, the Agency for Health Care Administration reported that the total bed capacity in the hospital was 23 percent, and the ICU bed capacity in three of the 18 authorized beds. The hospital has the capacity to expand ICU beds when necessary, and can transfer patients outside the hospital to other hospitals in the region.
The latest state report points to emergency room visits at Palm Coast Hospital for influenza-like visits at a rate of 10 a week for the past six weeks, with a peak from one week to approximately 15 the week of June 21. Weekly counts of emergency room visits with Covid-like symptoms had increased from less than 20 in early and mid-June to 35 the week of June 21 and a high of 50 the week of July 5. The number has dropped to less than 40 the week of July 12, the last week reported.
The state health department today reported 12,478 new cases in Florida, the fifth consecutive day that the state has exceeded 10,000 cases and the ninth in the last 10 days.
In that span of time, Florida has added 117,300 cases, a third of its cumulative total since the coronavirus pandemic began in late February. Aside from the United States, only Brazil and India have seen new infection numbers higher than those in Florida. In the same time frame, 980 people died from Covid-19 in Florida, 87 more reported today, a fifth of the state’s total, which is now 5,091. Florida and California are expected to overtake New York as the states with the highest number of cases in the county in the coming week.
However, Governor Ron DeSantis, speaking at Flagler Hospital in St. Augustine on Saturday, again blamed the “headlines” for lack of context and projection of fear. He played down the severity of the crisis in the state and slapped himself on the back for working with the White House to get 30,000 vials to go back to Florida hospitals to help shorten hospital stays.
Schools in Florida are under the state order to open five days a week for in-person instruction this fall, but several districts, including Volusia, Hillsborough, Palm Beach, Polk, and Orange counties, among others. In Texas, state education officials backed down after a backlash from teachers, parents, and health officials, and allowed school districts to delay reopening by up to four weeks. California announced last week that it would go to distance education until further notice.
Flagler is following a similar model to St. Johns, with options for instruction at the school or remote instruction beginning August 10, though the decision may change as local Covid numbers dictate.
On Saturday, the Centers for Disease Control released a new study that may have a significant impact on reopening schools, as it notes that older students are as infectious as adults.
It is the largest study to date looking at the effects of Covid-19 on schoolchildren, involving 59,073 contacts of 5,706 Covid patients who developed symptoms, in 10,592 households in South Korea. The study found that the infection rate for children in primary school or younger, that is, children from 0 to 9 years old, is low, but not non-existent: it was 5.3 percent (younger children breathe more small and closer to the ground, decreasing infectious capacities), although children in daycare centers were found to be at high risk of transmitting the virus to household members. But kids in middle and high school have an almost four times higher rate, at 18.6 percent, according to the study.
“A survey of contacts in Wuhan and Shanghai, China showed that school closings and social distancing significantly reduced the COVID-19 rate among contacts of school-age children,” the study reported. “The low detection rate of household contacts of preschool-age children in South Korea could be attributed to social distancing during these periods. However, a recent report from Shenzhen, China showed that the proportion of infected children increased during the outbreak from 2% to 13%, suggesting the importance of school closure. ”
“Our observation has several limitations,” the study authors reported. “First, the number of cases may have been underestimated because all asymptomatic patients may not have been identified. Furthermore, the cases detected could have been the result of exposure outside the home. Second, given the different thresholds for evaluating the policy between households and non-household contacts, we cannot assess the true difference in transmissibility between households and non-households. Comparison of symptomatic Covid-19 patients from both groups would be more accurate. Despite these limitations, the sample size was large and representative of the majority of Covid-19 patients at the start of the outbreak in South Korea. Our large-scale investigation showed that the transmission pattern was similar to that of other respiratory viruses (12). Although the detection rate of contacts for preschool-age children was lower, young children may show higher attack rates when school closes, which contributes to community transmission of Covid-19. “
There were 62,300 new cases across the country on Saturday, two days after 75,600 cases were reported across the country. There were an additional 770 deaths on Saturday, for a total of 140,200.
However, the White House is pushing to eliminate $ 25 billion in proposed funds for further coronavirus testing and contact tracing, $ 10 billion in funding for the Centers for Disease Control and $ 15 billion in funding for National Institutes of Health, according to the Washington Post. .
A note on the positivity rate: FlaglerLive since the start of the pandemic has relied only on the state’s general report that reports only confirmed cases to the health department, reflecting a lower number of tests overall, though that’s the number the state it depends as a measure of your total testing efforts. County-by-county reports showing daily tests and positive cases combine the most accurate PCR tests and antigen test data, a quick test with a higher probability of false negatives. Antigen numbers have been used to dilute the positivity rate. As covidtracking.com notes, “On July 1, the Florida Department of Health began mixing the results of the antigen tests with the results of the PCR tests and calculating an overall positive percentage rate using these combined data. The state does not break down the number of each type of test reported. Because these tests work differently and antigen tests are more likely to provide false negative results, these tests should not be combined in the reports. They should also not be used to calculate the percentage of positivity, which is likely to be artificially reduced by including a test with a higher percentage of false negatives. Antigen tests are also not considered “confirmatory” tests, so individuals with positive antigen tests alone do not count as confirmed cases of COVID-19. In fact, they don’t even count as probable cases without additional epidemiological or clinical evidence. Totals and antigen test results should be provided separately. ”
