Coronavirus positives in Bradenton and Hillsborough Counties (Miami, Orlando: passport, student)

[wondermint2]

SMH hospitalizations continue at a plateau.Thus far the decline at SMH has been slow and hospitalizations are only down about 9.9% from the Omicron peak of 221 hospitalizations (which occurred on January 24th). There were 10 more Covid deaths at SMH since Friday. It's hard to say if the BA.2 subvariant is currently slowing the decline - however IMO it's too soon for that and the test positivity ratio while still high remains on a steady decline.

Today's Update from Sarasota Memorial Hospital

Sarasota Memorial Hospital-Sarasota & Sarasota Memorial Hospital-Venice
COVID-19 Patient Update
Includes hospitalized patients who are positive for COVID-19 and those cleared of infection but still hospitalized at SMH facilities.

Total COVID inpatients today: 199 (195 yesterday) (201 on Friday)
COVID patients in ICU: 28 (27 yesterday) (28 0n Friday)
% Unvaccinated Inpatients*: 63% (updated weekly on Wednesdays)

* We categorize patients as “vaccinated” once they have received the required primary dose(s) of a COVID-19 vaccine and 2 weeks have passed since the final dose. At this time, we do not require that patients have booster doses to be categorized as fully vaccinated. An increase in break-through infections is expected as the Omicron variant spreads and immunity wanes among those who are high-risk and those who have not yet gotten a booster dose. COVID-19 vaccinations and booster shots are still the most effective method in preventing severe illness and hospitalization.


COVID-19 Test Results
SMH positivity rate: 17% (18.7% for week ending Jan. 28, 2022)

Cumulative COVID-19 Cases
Total number of patients treated since outbreak began.
Patient admissions: 5,899 (5,871 yesterday) (5811 on Friday)
Patient deaths: 590 (586 yesterday) (580 on Friday)

source:
https://www.smh.com/Home/News-Events...ly-news-update.

[wondermint2]

Today's Covid Update from Jackson Health in Miami

https://twitter.com/JacksonHealth/st...76843962339333

"Jackson Health System hospitals currently have 310 patients who have tested positive for COVID-19 (308 yesterday) (340 on Friday).

Of those, 181 patients - or 58% - are admitted to the hospital primarily for non-COVID reasons.

Of the 310, 66 are vaccinated, 41 of whom are immunocompromised transplant patients."

[wondermint2]

Today's Florida Covid Hospitalizations

9015 FL Covid hospitalizations today (down 425 from yesterday) (down 853 from Friday)

1346 FL Covid ICU patients today (down 91 from yesterday) (down 98 from Friday)

source:
https://protect-public.hhs.gov/pages...al-utilization

[wondermint2]

There's a new study out today about the BA.2 Omicron subvariant.

The omicron subvariant is more contagious, but vaccinated people are less likely to spread it, study finds

https://news.yahoo.com/omicron-subva...134510503.html

The BA.2 subvariant of the Omicron coronavirus variant, which has quickly taken over in Denmark, is more transmissible than the more common BA.1 and more able to infect vaccinated people, a Danish study has found.

The study, which analysed coronavirus infections in more than 8,500 Danish households between December and January, found that people infected with the BA.2 subvariant were roughly 33% more likely to infect others, compared to those infected with BA.1.

"We conclude that Omicron BA.2 is inherently substantially more transmissible than BA.1, and that it also possesses immune-evasive properties that further reduce the protective effect of vaccination against infection," the study's researchers said.

The study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, was conducted by researchers at Statens Serum Institut (SSI), Copenhagen University, Statistics Denmark and Technical University of Denmark.

"If you have been exposed to Omicron BA.2 in your household, you have 39% probability of being infected within seven days. If you instead had been exposed to BA.1, the probability is 29%," lead study author Frederik Plesner told Reuters.

That suggests BA.2 is around 33% more infectious than BA.1, he added.

The study also showed that BA.2 was relatively better than BA.1 at infecting vaccinated and booster-vaccinated people, indicating greater "immune evasive properties" of the subvariant.

But vaccines still played an important role, the study underlined, since both booster-vaccinated and fully vaccinated individuals were less like to get infected and transmit either subvariants, compared to those not vaccinated.

Preliminary analysis by SSI has shown that there is no difference in the risk of hospitalisation for BA.2 compared to BA.1.

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*Scientist Eric Topol has an informative thread about the Danish study:

https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status...69640286339074

[beach43ofus]

I'm seeing less and less peeps wearing masks now. The worst has passed, and people are ready to get back to living their lives around here. The fear mongering isn't nearly as effective as it was. I read a study that said 73% are ready to just live with it, & move on.

[wondermint2]

Originally Posted by wondermint2

IMO today's SMH update was a bit disappointing - (considering that Florida cases have been declining rapidly and Florida hospitalizations are at a plateau and have been starting to decline).

The test positivity rate at SMH has been trending lower but still very high at 21.7%. Also there were 9 more Covid deaths since Friday.

I still think we are very near a plateau. There were 111 Covid admissions since Friday - but because the hospital stays are shorter compared to the Delta wave the SMH Covid census only increased by 20 (since Friday). Still the hospital census of 221 is a record for this Omicron wave.

Today's Update from Sarasota Memorial Hospital

Sarasota Memorial Hospital-Sarasota & Sarasota Memorial Hospital-Venice
COVID-19 Patient Update
Includes hospitalized patients who are positive for COVID-19 and those cleared of infection but still hospitalized at SMH facilities.

Total COVID inpatients today: 221 (215 yesterday) (201 Friday)
COVID patients in ICU: 26 (28 yesterday) (25 Friday)
% Unvaccinated Inpatients*: 63% (updated weekly on Wednesdays)

* We categorize patients as “vaccinated” once they have received the required primary dose(s) of a COVID-19 vaccine and 2 weeks have passed since the final dose. At this time, we do not require that patients have booster doses to be categorized as fully vaccinated. An increase in break-through infections is expected as the Omicron variant spreads and immunity wanes among those who are high-risk and those who have not yet gotten a booster dose. COVID-19 vaccinations and booster shots are still the most effective method in preventing severe illness and hospitalization.


COVID-19 Test Results
SMH positivity rate: 21.7% (22% for week ending Jan. 21, 2022)

Cumulative COVID-19 Cases:
Total number of patients treated since outbreak began.
Patient admissions: 5,691 (5,662 yesterday) (5580 on Friday)
Patient deaths: 571 (568 yesterday) (562 on Friday)

source:
https://www.smh.com/Home/News-Events...ly-news-update

The downtrend for Covid hospitalizations continues at SMH but there's still a long way to go. I've quoted the SMH stats for January 24th above for easy comparison to today's stats. Their Omicron peak was 221 hospitalizations on January 24th - so SMH hospitalizations are down 16.29% from the peak. SMH has had 379 Covid admissions since January 21st.

The peak for the test positivity ratio at SMH actually occurred before January 24th and was around 28%. There's been 32 Covid deaths at SMH since January 21st.

Today's Update from Sarasota Memorial Hospital

Sarasota Memorial Hospital-Sarasota & Sarasota Memorial Hospital-Venice
COVID-19 Patient Update
Includes hospitalized patients who are positive for COVID-19 and those cleared of infection but still hospitalized at SMH facilities.

Total COVID inpatients today: 185 (195 yesterday) (199 on Monday)
COVID patients in ICU: 27 (28 yesterday) (28 on Monday)
% Unvaccinated Inpatients*: 64% (updated weekly on Wednesdays)

* We categorize patients as “vaccinated” once they have received the required primary dose(s) of a COVID-19 vaccine and 2 weeks have passed since the final dose. At this time, we do not require that patients have booster doses to be categorized as fully vaccinated. An increase in break-through infections is expected as the Omicron variant spreads and immunity wanes among those who are high-risk and those who have not yet gotten a booster dose. COVID-19 vaccinations and booster shots are still the most effective method in preventing severe illness and hospitalization.


COVID-19 Test Results
SMH positivity rate: 15.7% (18.7% for week ending Jan. 28, 2022)

Cumulative COVID-19 Cases
Total number of patients treated since outbreak began.
Patient admissions: 5,959 (5,932 yesterday) (5899 on Monday)
Patient deaths: 594 (591 yesterday) (590 on Monday)

source:
https://www.smh.com/Home/News-Events...ly-news-update

[wondermint2]

Originally Posted by wondermint2

Today's Update from Jackson Health System in Miami

https://twitter.com/JacksonHealth/st...33579220766721

"Jackson Health System hospitals currently have 523 patients who have tested positive for COVID-19. (+7 from yesterday)

Of those, 277 patients - or 53% - are admitted to the hospital primarily for non-COVID reasons.

Of the 523, 104 are vaccinated, 55 of whom are immunocompromised transplant patients."

Today's Update from Jackson Health System in Miami

The peak for the Covid Omicron wave at Jackson Memorial Health System in Miami was 523 hospitalizations on January 18th. I've quoted that update above for easy comparison. So they're down 49.13% from their peak.

As you can see the dowtrend thus far has been much more steep at Jackson Memorial in comparison to the 16.29% decline from peak at Sarasota Memorial Hospital. Some of the difference is to be expected because Jackson Memorial peaked sooner and had a larger peak - but IMO this doesn't fully explain the difference. Hopefully going forward Sarasota Memorial will play catch-up and their decline will accelerate.

https://twitter.com/JacksonHealth/st...57699165081602

"Jackson Health System hospitals currently have 266 patients who have tested positive for COVID-19 (-20 from yesterday)

Of those, 162 patients - or 61% - are admitted to the hospital primarily for non-COVID reasons.

Of the 266, 51 are vaccinated, 35 of whom are immunocompromised transplant patients."

[wondermint2]

It's still unclear what effect (if any) BA.2 will have on Florida.The key question is whether previous infection with BA.1 will provide immunity against BA.2 - and if so how much and how durable is that immunity? To that question the experts are currently divided. I still think it's too soon to notice BA.2 effects in FL - but the effects should become more clear over the coming weeks.

'Stealth omicron' variant (BA.2) has surfaced in Florida

https://www.google.com/amp/s/cbs12.c...ced-in-florida

There have been at least two cases in Florida confirmed by Helix Labs. One is a 69-year-old female and the other is a 32-year-old man. Both tested positive in January.

In the seven days after omicron peaked, the daily average for new cases declined by 37 percent. But over the past week, the decline in cases slowed to 22 percent, according to the Sun-Sentinel.

According to our partners, scientists say the subvariant of omicron BA.2 shows signs of being more contagious than the original version known as BA.1 and could be behind a slowdown in the downward trends in places such as Florida that have already experienced peak omicron.

For now, evidence suggests the subvariant is similar enough to omicron that vaccines will protect against severe COVID symptoms. A booster dose may be even more effective.


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"What we saw with previous variants was that immunity persisted for a longer period of time. What we are seeing with omicron--now there is pretty good evidence around this--it appears the immunity conferred by infection from omicron isn't that durable," says ScottGottliebMD

Omicron Covid immunity doesn't appear to be that durable, says Dr. Scott Gottlieb


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTeanQwZzno

[wondermint2]

Israeli study offers strongest proof yet of vitamin D’s power to fight COVID

https://news.google.com/articles/CAI...S&ceid=US%3Aen

Israel scientists say they have gathered the most convincing evidence to date that increased vitamin D levels can help COVID-19 patients reduce the risk of serious illness or death.

Researchers from Bar Ilan University and the Galilee Medical Center say that the vitamin has such a strong impact on disease severity that they can predict how people would fare if infected based on nothing more than their ages and vitamin D levels.

Lacking vitamin D significantly increases danger levels, they concluded in newly peer-reviewed research published Thursday in the journal PLOS One.

The study is based on research conducted during Israel’s first two waves of the virus, before vaccines were widely available, and doctors emphasized that vitamin supplements were not a substitute for vaccines, but rather a way to keep immunity levels from falling.

[macyny]

Thank you for your work!