Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Florida Covid Surge Breaks Case Record At Jacksonville Hospital
NBC News: Jacksonville Hospital Breaks Covid Record In Latest Florida Surge
With the state's Covid-19 cases roughly doubling each week, Florida has become one of the country's biggest hot spots for the latest surge fueled by the highly contagious delta variant, as well as vaccine skepticism. UF Health in Jacksonville said it broke its record for most hospitalized Covid patients Monday. At the start of Sunday, the hospital had 86. At one point Monday, the number reached 126, an increase of more than 40 percent in just one day. (Gutierrez, 7/19)
Health News Florida: Children Among Those Hospitalized With Delta Variant In Jacksonville
With COVID-19 cases spiking in Northeast Florida, local doctors say the patients filling up their hospitals are almost all unvaccinated. Children who are too young for the approved COVID vaccines are among those ending up in Jacksonville hospitals, according to UF Health Jacksonville Associate Chair of Pediatric Medicine Dr. Mobeen Rathore. “We don’t know that the delta variant causes any disease that is any worse than the regular coronavirus,” Rathore said. “But it is much easier to infect others, so it spreads much more easily.” (Boles, 7/19)
In updates from Mississippi and Arkansas —
AP: Health Officer: Mississippi Seeing '4th Wave' Of COVID Cases
Mississippi’s top public health official said Monday that the state is seeing a rapid increase in COVID-19 cases in July. “4th wave is here,” Dr. Thomas Dobbs, the state health officer, wrote on Twitter. The Mississippi State Department of Health said 2,326 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed Friday through Sunday. That is largest three-day increase of cases reported in the state since February. (Wagster Pettus, 7/19)
NBC News: Southern Surge: Hospitals Brace For Wave Of Covid Cases Not Seen In Months
For doctors at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, a rush of new Covid-19 cases and a dwindling availability of beds feels like the hospital is backsliding to how it was at the end of 2020. The latest projections from the school's college of public health suggests statewide Covid hospitalizations will triple in the next two weeks, which would mean a return to a chaotic period when staffing and resources were strained, elective operations were limited and it seemed like there was no end to the crisis in sight. (Ortiz, 7/19)
CBS News: Unvaccinated COVID Patient In Arkansas: Rejecting The Shot Is "Playing Russian Roulette With Your Life"
Since January, 98% of people hospitalized because of COVID in Arkansas were unvaccinated. Their average age: 40. "I thought the vaccine was a hoax," said 42-year-old Lamonte Boyd, a married father of three. He said he didn't listen to doctors or even his wife when she got vaccinated and told him he should, too. He is now hospitalized at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock. (7/19)
In updates from Texas, Oregon and California —
Houston Chronicle: Houston Methodist Hospital Records First Lambda Variant As COVID Cases Double Since July 1
COVID-19 hospitalizations at Houston Methodist Hospital have increased by 70 percent over the last week, including a large number of delta variant cases and the hospital's first recorded case of the lambda mutation, the hospital said Monday. As of Monday morning, Methodist was treating 184 people for COVID-19, double the number recorded on July 1, CEO Marc Boom wrote in an email to hospital staff that was shared with the Chronicle. At least one hospitalization was for the lambda variant, the first such case at Methodist. (Downen, 7/19)
The Oregonian: Coronavirus In Oregon: Cases Climb 54% In Past Week
The state of Oregon reported 2,026 new coronavirus cases and 29 COVID-19 deaths in the past week, according to data released Monday. That’s a 54% increase from the previous week. But cases remain significantly lower than during much of the pandemic. 21,268 people have been newly vaccinated with a first dose in the past week, according to state data. (Schmidt, 7/19)
Bay Area News Group: COVID Case Spike Would Land Much Of California Back In Purple Tier
How bad is California’s Delta COVID-19 surge? If the Golden State was still using its four-color reopening blueprint for ranking counties by infection rates, at least a dozen, including Los Angeles, Alameda, Contra Costa and Solano now would be in the most-restrictive purple tier, and many businesses would not be fully open. And that’s using new metrics introduced in March that made it easier for counties with higher case rates to move into lower-restriction tiers once the state reached what it considered equitable vaccination rates. Using the state’s original tier definitions, 29 counties, including San Francisco, now would be purple, which meant that the virus was widespread, a Bay Area News Group analysis found. (Woolfolk and Blair Rowan, 7/19)
Los Angeles Times: L.A. County Coronavirus Spike Hits Alarming Levels, With 10,000 Infected In A Week, As Delta Variant Spreads
Los Angeles County is now recording more than 10,000 coronavirus cases a week — a pace not seen since March — an alarming sign of the dangers the Delta variant poses to people who have not been vaccinated and heightening pressure on health officials to reverse the trend. A Los Angeles Times data analysis found L.A. County was recording 101 weekly coronavirus cases for every 100,000 residents, up from 12 for the seven-day period that ended June 15. That means the county has surpassed the threshold to have “high” community transmission of the disease, the worst tier as defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A region must hit 100 or more weekly cases per 100,000 residents to enter the worst tier. (Lin II, Greene and Suh Lauder, 7/19)
