Dear Patient:
I hope this finds you well. Currently there are 18 persons hospitalized at NCH with COVID and we have treated 1135 people in the hospital successfully since the beginning of the pandemic. There have been 20 pediatric patients treated in total. The incidence of COVID continues to remain low and the positivity rate at NCH the past week was 2.5%. Appropriately screened visitors are now being admitted to the hospital to visit family members. The time to get the flu shot is now in anticipation of the respiratory season and they are available at the office. Please continue to practice good habits to decrease transmission until a vaccine is available.
Vaccines: Work continues on several promising vaccines and they will be available free of charge in a staggered fashion when available. There are probably 6 strong vaccine candidates and they are not all the same. The FDA has established stringent criteria for approval of a vaccine and plans are in place with individual states for appropriate distribution of the vaccines when available.
U.S. set to deliver 150M rapid coronavirus tests to states
The New York Times (9/28, Wu) reports that on Monday, President Trump “announced a plan to distribute 150 million rapid coronavirus tests purchased by the federal government to states, tribes and other jurisdictions in the coming months.” The tests set “to be distributed by the federal government, a product called BinaxNOW manufactured by Abbott Laboratories, do not require specialized equipment and can yield results within 15 minutes, based on a quick and relatively painless swab that shallowly samples the nostrils.” The tests, which the FDA “gave an emergency greenlight in August, are cleared only for use in people with symptoms of COVID-19 and must be administered by, or in the presence of, a trained health care professional.”
Below is an updated link for Collier County testing sites:
http://collier.floridahealth.gov/newsroom/2020/06/0601testinginformation.html
Below is the link to the updated NCH COVID information page:
https://nchmd.org/news-and-events/newsroom/coronavirus-covid19
As always, take care and remember to wash your hands, wear a mask and practice at least 6 feet of physical distancing.
Paul Jones MD