COVID-19 Surges and Vaccinations Have Begun
Assessing the risk posed by COVID-19 on Sanibel and Captiva involves considering the situation at the hospitals in Lee County. The islands have no hospitals; island residents depend upon hospitals on the mainland. Those hospitals are on the front line of the epidemic in Lee County.
Lee Health, the main hospital system for Lee County,
continues to experience high occupancy rates and positivity rates (percent of
tests that are positive) for COVID-19 tests processed in Lee Health
laboratories. Over the past week, the
occupancy rate was 95% on December 30, and 96% on January 5. The daily positivity rates were 32.2% on
December 30 and 34% on January 5.
Occupancy of adult Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds was 89% on December
30, and 93% on January 5.
Meanwhile, the Lee Health system has been vaccinating its
key workers, as well as staff members who are 65 or older. As more vaccines are received, Lee Health
will announce plans for vaccinating residents who are over 65.
Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
reports that 17,020,575 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been distributed as of
January 5. (Some of these are the
Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and some are the Moderna vaccine – see below.) Of those distributed, 4,836,469 vaccines have
been administered to people as of January 5.
All of those people will need a second dose of vaccine in a few
weeks. (For reference, the USA
population is 328,239,520.)
Here is a brief overview of four COVID-19 vaccines that are
or may be available this year in the U.S.
1. Pfizer-BioNTech
Two shots, given three weeks
apart.
Developed by Pfizer, an American
multi-national corporation, and BioNTech, a German company.
Uses messenger RNA technology.
Approved in Canada and other
countries. Approved for emergency use in
the USA and other countries.
Must be frozen.
2.
Moderna
Two shots, given 28 days apart.
Developed by Moderna, a
Massachusetts biotechnology company, in a partnership with the National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Uses messenger RNA technology.
Approved in Canada. Approved for emergency use in the USA and
Israel.
Must be frozen.
3. Johnson
& Johnson
One shot.
Developed by Janssen, a
Belgium-based pharmaceutical arm of Johnson & Johnson, an American
multi-national corporation, in conjunction with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical
Center in Boston, MA.
Uses adenovirus technology, like
the Ebola vaccine.
FDA approval for emergency use
anticipated in February 2021.
The company is taking reservations
for orders, pending vaccine approval.
Does not need to stay frozen; may
be refrigerated for up to 3 months.
4.
Oxford-Astra Zeneca
Two shots, four weeks apart.
Developed by a partnership of the
University of Oxford and Astra-Zeneca, a British-Swedish company.
Uses adenovirus technology.
Approved for emergency use in
Britain, Argentina, and India. Clinical
trial in USA has been paused due to an adverse reaction.
Does not need to stay frozen; may
be refrigerated.
According to the Florida Department of Health, as of January
6, there have been 158 cases of COVID-19 among people who call Sanibel and
Captiva home. But this does not include
cases of COVID-19 among people who work, play, visit, or volunteer on the
islands; many or most of them live on the mainland.
In Lee County, there have been 41,596 cases of COVID-19 as
of January 6. (In my last report, on
December 30, that number was 38,659.)
That’s an increase of approximately 5,000 known cases since December
21. So, about 5.4 percent of Lee County
residents have had COVID-19, as far as is known. An unknown number of people
exhibit no symptoms when infected with COVID-19; the virus is only detected
when people are tested.
For more information on the incidence of COVID-19 in
Florida, click
here for the Florida COVID-19 Dashboard.
Tabs at the bottom of that web page can be used to find data by county
and by zip code.
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