It was a day of grim records in Flagler County and the country as the coronavirus accelerates, even as vaccines are slowly – but too slowly – reproduced, and dried up, for now, in Flagler.
The last of the available Covid-19 vaccines from Flagler County will be administered Monday, drying up a stockpile of about 1,100 doses outside the local hospital, and pharmacies offering emergency care facilities and nursing homes (which have its own but very limited supply). Provincial officials do not know when the next dose of vaccines will be delivered, and expect the next group to be smaller than the 500 they received last Monday.
The offer “is effectively exhausted,” Jonathan Lord, head of the country’s emergency management, said today. ‘We have no idea’ when it will be replenished. “The state can not yet tell us what they can give us because they have not yet received their award from the federal government. My gut is, it’s going to be even less. The small amounts of vaccines available and the strict protocols associated with the dosages – only first responders with direct contact with patients and people aged 65 and over are eligible – have frustrated residents and caused much criticism of local officials, although Lord exactly insisted ‘It’s nobody’s fault that there are not enough doses.’
At least not locally. The deployment of the federal government was flawed, and the Trump administration was in a state of chaos, and its management was kept to a minimum, leaving states and local governments abandoning and improvising the effects of the most serious public health crisis in a century. . (Lord has outlined the country’s response and what can be predicted here with the vaccination of registrations and the like.)
Flagler’s Covid case tax broke another single week record for the fourth consecutive week, with 341 cases so far this week (more cases in six days than in the first 20 weeks of the pandemic), with one more reporting day in the week. . The province has confirmed 1,180 cases in the past four weeks – more than a quarter of the total of 4,173 Flagler County cases since March. The Florida Department of Health today raised Flagler’s death toll from Covid to 50, a figure FlaglerLive has been reporting since the end of December, based on internal health department documentation, which differs from the state’s total. It is therefore not clear whether the state adjusted its figure, or whether it was a new death – bringing the actual total for Flagler to 51.
“This is not the time to be complacent in any way, in shape or form,” said Bob Snyder, director of the Flagler Health Department, late this afternoon. But local shops, restaurants, parks, the beach and other public venues were apparently just as busy as it was 2019, after holiday trips and gatherings that expected the exponential increase in cases.
Flagler’s positivity rate is now at a staggering 13.3 percent, ‘an indication that, in addition to doubling the confirmed cases, we have widespread diseases in our community,’ ‘Snyder said,’ and we attribute that to exactly what people predicted, the cases associated with the celebration of New Year and holidays, people traveling. It spreads among us. We do our best to keep up with the case investigations and to keep in touch with the detection and distribution of all the vaccines we have, as well as to conduct community investigations and to continue public health services for the community. We still have not heard from the state what our award is for next week, and if we get an award, it will be minimal. ”
Lord and Snyder will appear before the provincial commission on Monday morning to provide an update and to be more vigilant against a growing but dangerous paradox: some people conclude that the emergency is over because vaccines are reproducing. This is by no means the case, Snyder said, as the number of vaccinations remains minimal – only 443,600 in Flor, less than 2 percent of the population, and only 2,500 in Flagler, most in hospitals, among the first respondents. and in long-term care facilities.
In a sign of deteriorating local conditions, the Flagler Beach government announced today that it will close the town hall and administrative offices, including the building department, until January 19, as the interim city manager and at least one other person in the building’s department met with Covid19 .
“Yesterday afternoon I was informed that I had tested positive for the Coronavirus,” Robert McFadden, the interim manager, said in a statement today. ‘While I have a mild effect of the virus, I rest, am uplifted and follow the advice of medical professionals. I will stay at home in quarantine until I can fully recover and go back to work if it is absolutely safe. City offices need to be cleaned. McFadden acted as manager as well as chief building officer, so he would have been contagious in both places.
“At present, the city intends to proceed with all meetings scheduled in the Commission Chambers during the period, with appropriate procedures in place to monitor the health and safety of the public, elected officials and staff,” the statement said. A meeting of the city commission is scheduled for next week, Thursday.
Flagler’s trend has been deteriorating for weeks, but the trend in many other counties in Florida is worse. In the state, where Governor Ron DeSantis has refused to impose any restrictions since the state returned to a full, open economy in late summer, new cases totaled nearly 20,000 in one day, the second worst total after the 31,518 which was confirmed on January. 2, although the figure of 2 January included two days’ value due to the New Year holidays. In effect, Florida broke a new one-day record on Thursday. The national number was just a record of December, with 280,300 deaths in one day and 4,112 deaths in one day – a record total of 367,000 deaths.
AdventHealth Palm Coast had 21 patients with a primary diagnosis of Covid-19, also a record, according to figures released this morning by the state agency for health care administration. AdventHealth’s hospitals throughout central Florida have had increasing tension among Covid cases. On Wednesday, the hospital network in the Central Florida region turned on ‘Red Status’, which institutes a strict triage system for different cases.
“The number of Covid-19 inpatient volumes at AdventHealth facilities in the Central Florida ward continued to climb and the clinical team determined that AdventHealth facilities in the Central Florida ward will move to Red Status immediately. , “said David’s president and CEO, David. Ottati, a former CEO of AdventHealth Palm Coast, writes doctors in the system in a letter received by FlaglerLive. “However, cases already scheduled for this week will be reviewed by the campus head and / or department chair to determine if local resources are sufficient to continue.”
Ottati set out the Red Status conditions, which postpone certain procedures and require ‘prior approval for all non-time-sensitive / urgent or non-emergent inpatient procedures’, and increased supervision by the Chief Medical Officer.
As pressure on local officials to deliver vaccines increased, officials also became aware of a trend among a number of first responders in Flagler County – most notably firefighters – who, despite their chiefs inoculating the weapon, spray refused. , at least for now.
Lord acknowledged the tendency. ‘It’s like a lot of things in life, a lot of people are not comfortable being the first,’ he said, ‘and even in our community, no one is the first, the people in the hearings are the first. It’s OK, when they are ready we will take care of them. Dr Stephen Bickel, medical director of the Volusia and Flagler health department, spoke this morning about WNZF and said that the reluctance was not a cause for concern, but rather a natural and general reaction to a new protocol, and that the silver lining for now means it leaves more vaccines for others.
The Florida Department of Health in Flagler County (DOH-Flagler) has confirmed its COVID-19 test schedule for the second week of January.
There will be no daily testing in Cattleman’s Hall of Flagler County Fairgrounds, which has become the health department’s primary site for COVID-19 vaccinations. However, as the doses of vaccines are low, vaccine appointments are currently unavailable. Flagler County Emergency Management and the Florida Department of Health in Flagler County will notify public and local media channels if this situation changes.
Driving through COVID-19 testing across from 120 Airport Road will be offered Monday to Thursday between 13:30 and 15:00. No appointments are required and flu shots are available upon request.
Remember, these are NOT quick tests. Results are available within 2 to 3 days.
Tests will also return to the St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church.
MONDAY 11 JANUARY
13:30 to 15:00
TUESDAY 12 JANUARY
13:30 to 15:00
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13
13:30 to 15:00
THURSDAY 14 JANUARY
13:30 to 15:00
FRIDAY, JANUARY 15
9 to 10:30
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church
4600 Belle Terre Parkway Palmkus
No afternoon tests
There are other locations in Flagler County that deliver COVID-19 tests over weekends, including two Mediquick locations, CentraCare and CVS pharmacies. Please confirm with each website in advance, as most appointments are required.
COVID-19 health questions should be directed to a health care provider or the Florida Health hotline at 866-779-6121. Additional information can be found at floridahealthcovid19.gov/.