Coronavirus positives in Bradenton and Hillsborough Counties (Jacksonville, Sarasota: tax credit, groceries)

[wondermint2]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

Do you have to be 65 to access these pop-up sites?

The Venice pop-up on Sunday is a state run site - so it covers:

- Persons 65 years of age and older;
- Health care personnel with direct patient contact;
- K-12 school employees 50 years of age and older

https://www.scgov.net/government/hea...riority-groups

The governor is talking about lowering the age limit in Florida later this month.

[wondermint2]

Week over week cases declined by 17% in Sarasota County and 14.6% in Manatee County. The test positivity rates were basically unchanged in both counties. Testing declined in both counties.

Hospitalizations rose by 15% in Manatee County while rising by 6.7% in Sarasota County.

At first glance it would appear that the downtrend has restablished itself after last week's small increase - however ideally in a strong downtrend we would also like to see declines in the test positivity rates along with a decline in hospitalizations (which we didn't get this week). So just as last week I was not confident a new uptrend was starting - I cannot state with conviction that the downtrend is in full force again.

I would say if we get a decline in cases again next week along with a rise in hospitalizations and test positivity ratio - to me that would mean something would be suspect with the numbers (they are provided by the Florida Dept. of Health). I've noticed that the case numbers reported in the local newspapers and the FDH dashboard - are always higher then what's listed in their PDF file. For example on March 3rd the newspapers reported 98 new cases in Sarasota County and in the PDF file they "shaved off" 27 cases and reported 71 new cases (for March 3rd). So either the FDH is fudging the numbers to make it look better - or they they might have some system for claiming some of the original numbers weren't verified correctly.

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Hospitalizations
As per the state data-base that lists hospitalizations with a primary diagnosis of Covid-19:

Sarasota County:

*January 24th = 133.7 Covid-19 patients hospitalized
*January 31st = 111 Covid-19 patients hospitalized
* February 7th = 82.28 Covid-19 patients hospitalized
*February 14th = 60.00 Covid-19 patients hospitalized
*February 21st = 64.14 Covid-19 patients hospitalized
*February 28th = 59.57 Covid-19 patients hospitalized
*March 7th = 63.57 Covid-19 patients hospitalized

Manatee County:

*January 24th = 87.7 Covid-19 patients hospitalized
*January 31st = 79.14 Covid-19 patients hospitalized
*February 7th = 70.43 Covid-19 patients hospitalized
*February 14th = 58.28 Covid-19 patients hospitalized
*February 21st = 50.71 Covid-19 patients hospitalized
*February 28th = 54.28 Covid-19 patients hospitalized
*March 7th = 62.71 Covid-19 patients hospitalized

*I report hospitalizations as the seven day average.

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Cases, Tests, Positivity Rate

For the week of March 1st through March 7th:

Sarasota County:

total positive cases = 400 (57.14 cases per day on average)
total tests = 11,087 (1583.86 tests per day on average)
test positivity rate = 3.61%

Manatee County:

total positive cases = 660 (94.28 cases per day on average)
total tests = 11,552 (1650.28 tests per day on average)
test positivity rate = 5.71%

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For the week of February 21st through February 27th:

Sarasota County:

total positive cases = 484 (69.14 cases per day on average)
total tests = 13,938 (1991.14 tests per day on average)
test positivity rate = 3.47%

Manatee County:

total positive cases = 773 (110.43 cases per day on average)
total tests = 11,234 (1329 tests per day on average)
test positivity rate = 5.8%

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For the week of February 14th through February 20th:

Sarasota County:

total positive cases = 474 (67.71 cases per day on average)
total tests = 12,635 (1805 tests per day on average)
test positivity rate = 3.7%

Manatee County:

total positive cases = 738 (105.43 cases per day on average)
total tests = 11,234 (1604.86 tests per day on average)
test positivity rate = 6.6%

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For the week of February 7th through February 13th:

Sarasota County:

total positive cases = 519 (74.14 cases per day on average)
total tests = 14,504 (2072 tests per day on average)
test positivity rate = 3.57%

Manatee County:

total positive cases = 818 (116.86 cases per day on average)
total tests = 12,863 (1837.57 tests per day on average)
test positivity rate = 6.36%

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For the week of January 31st through February 6th:

Sarasota County:

total positive cases = 644 (92 cases per day on average)
total tests = 14,785 (2112.14 per day on average)
test positivity rate = 4.3%

Manatee County:

total positive cases = 835 (119.28 cases per day on average)
total tests = 14,528 (2075.43 tests per day on average)
test positivity rate = 5.7%

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For the week of January 24th through January 30th:

Sarasota County:

total positive cases = 892 (127.43 cases per day on average)
total tests = 17,443 (2491.86 tests per day on average)
test positivity rate = 5.1%

Manatee County:

total positive cases = 1174 (167.71 cases per day on average)
total tests = 16,884 (2383.43 tests per day on average)
test positivity rate = 7.04%

[graceC]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

Do you have to be 65 to access these pop-up sites?

I wonder if you can be put on their waiting list for last minute availability. I got mine last night from the Venice Airport pop up facility unexpectedly because they had 1500 doses they had to use ASAP and not enough people to give it to. So one of the nurses went to our church and asked the priest to announce it - right after mass, so it was good timing! A bunch of people quickly drove there to get the shot - anyone over 18 who showed up could get it in that situation since they needed to use it or throw it.

I would imagine you would have to be ready to show up in 10 minutes or less when you get the call.

[wondermint2]

Are you a school or child care worker in Manatee? Here’s some COVID vaccine options

https://www.bradenton.com/news/coron...249715433.html

The list of people eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine has expanded under recent state and federal guidance. However, the method of finding a vaccine depends on the person, especially when it comes to educators.

[wondermint2]

Spring Breakers Take Over Florida amid COVID Pandemic: 'We're Very Concerned,' Miami Beach Mayor Says

https://people.com/health/spring-bre...erns/?amp=true

Some warm-weather cities are worried that spring breakers could lead to new COVID-19 outbreaks, nearly a year after the onset of the pandemic cut 2020's spring break season short.

On Friday, Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber appeared on CNN's New Day and said the city is "very concerned" about vacationers, especially as Miami-Dade county averages more than 1,000 new COVID cases a day and different variants of virus continue to crop up.

"A lot of things are happening simultaneously," Gelber said. "You have the variant down here, and we still are having sometimes dozens of deaths a day in our county."

"And at the same time, we've got incredibly cheap round-trip tickets for 40 bucks from anywhere in the Northeast down here, discounted rooms and people who have been really pent up and wanting to get out with no other place to go than here," he continued. "So we are very worried that there's going to be a convergence of people here and a real problem in the aftermath of that."

[wondermint2]

CDC releases highly anticipated guidance for people fully vaccinated against Covid-19

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/03/08/h...ted/index.html

New guidelines from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say people fully vaccinated against Covid-19 can safely visit with other vaccinated people and small groups of unvaccinated people in some circumstances, but there are still important safety precautions needed. The guidelines were announced at the White House COVID-19 Response Team briefing on Monday.

[Roland54]

Quercetin and Vitamin D for virus prevention...

https://articles.mercola.com/sites/a...revention.aspx

[wondermint2]

Florida will lower eligibility to 60 and older for COVID-19 vaccine

https://www.wesh.com/amp/article/flo...wered/35770062

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Monday that starting next week, all people age 60 and older will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.

DeSantis made the announcement during a news conference on Monday in Tallahassee.

The lowered age requirements will begin next Monday, March 15.

DeSantis said that the eligibility will be across the board, at state run sites and retail pharmacy locations.

[wondermint2]

UK COVID-19 variant has significantly higher death rate, study finds

https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN2B213E

LONDON (Reuters) - A highly infectious variant of COVID-19 that has spread around the world since it was first discovered in Britain late last year is between 30% and 100% more deadly than previous dominant variants, researchers said on Wednesday.

In a study that compared death rates among people in Britain infected with the new SARS-CoV-2 variant - known as B.1.1.7 - against those infected with other variants of the COVID-19-causing virus, scientists said the new variant's mortality rate was "significantly higher".

It has 23 mutations in its genetic code - a relatively high number - and some of them have made it far more easily spread. Scientists say it is about 40%-70% more transmissible than previous dominant variants that were circulating.

In the UK study, published in the British Medical Journal on Wednesday, infection with the new variant led to 227 deaths in a sample of 54,906 COVID-19 patients, compared with 141 among the same number of patients infected with other variants.

[wondermint2]

Some non-eligible people are getting vaccinated to cut down on COVID vaccine waste

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/med...te/ar-BB1erqEx

You want the vaccine, but you aren’t eligible yet in your state.

Some people are finding success in getting the vaccine through a process often referred to as waste management or waste protocol.

This means going to vaccination sites at the end of the day and getting a vaccine that otherwise wouldn’t have an arm to go in. Some sites even seem to have waste waitlists to be called on if someone doesn't show up to their appointment and the vaccine needs to go to someone that day.

The process is different at every location, pharmacy or state site.

At Regency Mall, the state vaccination site in Jacksonville, some days you’ll see a line of non-eligible people waiting during the last hour of operation hoping for these "extras". Sometimes we are told it works, other times not.

The goal is to not waste a vaccine. Depending on the vaccine, it must be used within a certain period of time. Once thawed out it cannot be returned to the ultra-cold storage, according to the FDA.

This is true for both Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.