Dear Patient:
I hope this finds you well, safe and dry with Eta! Currently there are 50 persons hospitalized at NCH with COVID and we have treated 1270 people in the hospital successfully since the beginning of the pandemic. There are 28 patients at PRMC. The Collier positivity rate stands at 8.4% and has been increasing slowly. You may have read that the FDA has approved emergency use for treatment and NCH is pursuing that.
Vaccines: A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease. There are several different “biological preparations” being actively investigated to provide the active immune response to Coronavirus. Currently, there are 6 very promising vaccine candidates with 5 of them being in phase 3 trials and two being in late stage trials. One of the candidates, the vaccine by Pfizer appears to be up to 90% effective which is very good news. So far, the vaccines also appear to be safe. NCH has two large sub-zero freezers capable of storing the vaccine and has applied to be one of the recipient sites for vaccine storage and administration.RNA that is transmitted on an adenovirus.
Study: SARS-CoV-2 can survive on human skin for 9 hours
A study in Clinical Infectious Diseases found that the novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, is capable of surviving on human skin for up to nine hours, which is much longer than the influenza A virus. “It is critical to have information about the stability (survival time) of SARS-CoV-2 on the human skin to develop approaches to prevent contact transmission,” the study authors wrote.
The above shows the importance of good hand hygiene.
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
Please continue good handwashing, mask wearing and maintaining 6 Ft of distance and, take care.
Paul Jones MD