EDC Healthcare Update April 5th

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The note below is distributed to Board members of the EDC and provides an excellent snapshot of where we are in nationally, statewide, and countywide in terms of positivity rates, infection rates, and vaccination rates.

Good morning, Board members!  I hope your holiday weekend brought renewed hope and fresh beginnings.  I am forwarding last week’s healthcare update from Sharp, on behalf of our medical organization representatives from Sharp, Scripps, Kaiser Permanente, and Rady Children’s Hospital.  As always, it is our hope that this ongoing information helps to put medical considerations into clearer context in the quickly changing and often confusing landscape of these complex times.   

Feel free to reach out to the EDC Team if you have any questions or if we can be of any assistance.  We appreciate your continued feedback, insight and support.     

Here’s to keeping hope, embracing possibilities and realizing promise for the future.  Have a wonderful week!     

National/International, State, County/City HealthCare Highlights

 

National/International

·       Americans who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus can travel “at low risk to themselves,” both within the U.S. and internationally, but they must continue to take precautions, such as wearing a mask in public, to avoid possibly spreading the virus to others, according to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

·       On Thursday, the CDC walked back comments made in a TV interview by its director, Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, suggesting that people vaccinated against the coronavirus never become infected or transmit the virus to others. The public health agency pointed to conflicting data on post-vaccination transmission, noting that clinical trials were focused on the vaccine’s efficacy against hospitalization and death.

·       At least 955 new coronavirus deaths and 77,718 new cases were reported in the U.S. April 1. Over the past week, there has been an average of 65,574 cases per day, an increase of 20% from the average 2 weeks earlier. As of Friday morning, more than 30,562,800 people in the U.S. have been infected with the COVID-19 virus, according to a New York Times database.

State

  • More than 30% of Californians, which equates to more than 18 million people, are now at least partially vaccinated against COVID-19 — a hopeful milestone that comes as the state dramatically expands who is eligible to receive the vaccine.

  • The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) announced the following COVID-19 statistics Thursday, April 1: There were 2,234 newly recorded confirmed cases in the state Wednesday, and the 7-day positivity rate is 1.9%. More statistics are available here.

County/City

  • The County of San Diego Health & Human Services Agency (HHSA) reported Thursday that nearly 1.89 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been delivered to the region, and almost 1.73 million have been logged as administered. This number includes both county residents and those who work in San Diego County. Of those vaccinated to date, over 576,000 county residents, or 21.4% of San Diegans 16 and older, are fully immunized. Other updated county metrics about outbreaks, testing, hospitalizations and deaths are available here.

  • Free COVID-19 testing is now available at 3 churches in San Diego County through June 30. A new partnership between the county, the Tabernacle Community Development Corporation and the African American Community Empowerment Council launched today to offer COVID-19 testing at Bethel AME Church, Bayview Baptist Church and Total Deliverance Worship Center. While vaccine distribution is now underway, community-based testing remains a key strategy to reducing coronavirus transmission and mortality. Through this partnership, COVID-19 testing will be more accessible to vulnerable communities.

  • Countywide data shows the number of patients with COVID-19 in San Diego County hospitals decreased to 177 Friday, April 2, an improvement over the prior week’s number of 197. The distribution of patients with confirmed COVID-19 is as follows:

o   60 at Sharp HealthCare

o   53 at Scripps Health

o   24 at UC San Diego Health

o   13 at Palomar Health

o   8 at Tri-City Healthcare District

o   7 at Kaiser Permanente

o   6 at Navy Medical Center

o   3 at Rady Children’s Hospital

o   2 at Alvarado Hospital Medical Center

o   1 at VA Medical Center