Covid-19 Update | April 9 at 11:34 PM

Tonight’s coronavirus update is brought to you by Tito’s Vodka, a great way to start one of many three days weekends this month. So, we have 34 cases total in Bay County, now including our Congressman, my colleague, and friend Neal Dunn. He is doing well and will do excellent I am sure, but prayers for him for a speedy recovery. I want to let you all know that Mario Pulido has put out a great update from the clinical side here in Bay County and I encourage all to go check it out. We are still on track for falling well under the newer IHME estimate of 60,000 deaths in the US and 4,000 in Florida. A couple of studies have come out showing interesting results. So, in Iceland, they have reported the results of their population-wide coronavirus testing. 10% of everyone in Iceland was tested. Of the 36,223 tests, 1,648 were positive, they had 40 hospitalizations and six deaths. So about 5% of all tested, many who were asymptomatic, tested positive. If you got coronavirus you had a 0.3% case fatality rate. A German study looking at random samples from both asymptomatic and symptomatic individuals revealed a prevalence of either a positive throat swab or a blood antibody test of 15%. They also calculated a case fatality rate at 0.4%. Seasonal flu is at 0.1%. We are at or nearing the national peak in this epidemic, which is centered around the New York City and Detroit metro area. 62% of all cases and deaths in the nation come from here. Elsewhere in the nation, hospitals sit empty waiting for all the patients that fortunately do not appear to be coming. The 250-bed army field hospital that was set up in Seattle at Everbank Field was dismantled today after treating zero patients. A hospital in Oklahoma City was shut down due to the lack of non-coronavirus patients they would typically rely on to keep their other employees busy. And a deeper look at the March unemployment numbers shows that after restaurant and hospitality, it was healthcare services that had the next most layoffs. A source I have at a large hospital system in central Florida says they are losing $2.5 M per day that they remain open with no elective surgeries to keep their ORs busy. All of the surgical techs, nurses, and anesthesiologists are furloughed. COVID-19 is not a surgical disease, but it overwhelmed NYC and Detroit and our preparation destroyed the economics of all the hospital systems that didn’t have COVID patients. Deaths have plateaued in New York, which has allowed a plateau to form in nationwide deaths (1,971 on 4/7, 1,940 on 4/8, and 1,900 today). As long as those numbers slowly trend down, total deaths will be under 50,000 and this will resemble a bad flu season from a mortality standpoint. Keep following local, state, and national leaders, but let’s all be prepared for an end to these lockdowns at the end of the month and get everybody back to work again. Stay safe everybody!