Florida governor touts ‘positive developments’ as state breaks record for new deaths

At a roundtable in Orlando today with medical professionals, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state has seen “positive development over the last few months, generating improved outcomes in patient recovery.”

Earlier today, Florida recorded 186 new deaths, breaking the previous record of 173 deaths on Thursday, according to data released by the Florida Department of Health. The statewide total resident death toll is at least 6,117 to date. 

DeSantis said the Covid-19 fatalities reported today were “probably reflective of infections and hospitalizations that have happened in the past, so it’s more of a lagging indicator.”

DeSantis explained, “whereas, I think the ED visits and some of the hospital censuses is probably more of a leading indicator about where things are trending. And so as you have fewer ED visits, as you have fewer Covid-positive patients in the hospital, we think and I’m pretty sure with what the good work they’re doing, you’ll see mortality decrease as well.” 

A new shipment of 20,000 remdisivir vials is expected to be distributed across Florida hospitals today

Medical professionals at today’s roundtable expressed concerned for non-Covid patients in need of treatment for other conditions keeping away from the hospital but ultimately need critical care. 

Hospital officials noted they have seen “a steady, but very consistent decline” in their census among Central Florida facilities. They peaked at 515 patients on July 19th. Today they are accounting for 406 patients. 

Coronavirus is not known to spread through food or food packaging, US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn said on Tuesday.

In pre-recorded remarks for the National Food Policy Conference, Hahn said that although there are still a lot of questions about Covid-19, “what we do know is that the virus is not known to be transmitted via food or food packaging. It is much more likely to be spread through person-to-person transmission.”

Hahn said that while the US food supply chain “remains strong,” the FDA and US Department of Agriculture are monitoring for potential nationwide and regional shortages.

The agency has also provided flexibility on things such as packaging and label requirements to “help clear new paths to the retail market” for food producers who found themselves with a surplus due to schools and restaurants closing, Hahn explained.

Kern County, situated in California’s Central Valley, reported 12 new deaths and 1,893 new coronavirus cases Tuesday morning, primarily due to delayed results from labs, public health director Matthew Constantine said this morning. 

Constantine said current modeling shows a slow increase in cases over time until a February peak which diminishes until next summer. He added that while intensive care units are nearing capacity, they are more limited by nurse staffing. 

“We’re actually talking about meeting with all the Central Valley counties that were identified by the governor and asking them what are we doing as a group because we all link together,” he said. 

More context: Gov. Gavin Newsom brought focus to the Central Valley on Monday and its eight counties as a state hotspot. The state is committing $52 million to the area comprising Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Tulare counties.

“The rising community transmission rates we are seeing, particularly among Latinos in the Central Valley, are concerning. This is alarming and we are taking action,” said Newsom.

The money will be used to improve isolation protocols, testing protocols, and to enhance health care workers to provide more support and personnel. 

The county health department said last week it expects a large increase in positive reporting for the next few weeks, if not longer.

Kern County has a total of 16,896 cases and 135 deaths.

Duke University is scaling down its plans for welcoming back students on campus for the fall semester due to the growing number of Covid-19 cases in both North Carolina and the country, according to a note sent Sunday to the campus community.

President Vincent E. Price said the decision was made to reduce the on-campus residential population by about 30% to provide a safe environment for students and staff. This marks a reversal of an earlier plan put out in June that would have welcomed back students from all years back to campus.

Juniors and seniors will be given the option of remote-learning for the fall, and will have first priority for campus housing in the spring, the note said.

According to the note, Duke’s plans for the spring semester are tentative “and will be based on the continuing course of the pandemic, medical guidance, prevailing local and national conditions, and our ability to conduct a safe and successful fall semester.”

Tal Zaks, chief medical officer of Moderna, says he expects the company’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate to be effective in those at risk of becoming seriously ill or dying from the virus. 

Though he said the data will ultimately prove whether it is effective for everyone, he said “there’s another more subtle explanation, which is, the more likely you are to get sick, the higher benefit typically people see from vaccines.” 

Zaks said that a quarter of the volunteers in the Moderna Phase 3 trial, which began Monday morning, are expected be elderly or those with significant underlying illnesses such as diabetes “because that’s the population we need to know we’re protecting, but that’s also the population where the event rate of significant disease is going to be likely higher, and so that’s the population where actually I expect to see if anything is greater benefit.”

The US government’s Operation Warp Speed is accelerating every aspect of vaccine development apart from the two most important: safety and efficacy, according to Dr. Moncef Slaoui, the operation’s chief adviser, who explained how the program worked to develop, manufacture and distribute a successful vaccine, and to do all that quickly. 

Speaking during a prerecorded keynote interview for the Disease Prevention and Control Summit on Tuesday, Slaoui said that they are accelerating the process by “taking financial risk, running things in parallel and taking platform technologies that are predictable in their behavior, but not curtailing the understanding of safety and efficacy of the vaccine.”

Companies are modifying vaccine technologies that been tested already in people so they can move more quickly through the testing process, for instance. Plus, it is important to be able to speedily manufacture any new vaccine.

Secondly, the companies are “accelerating every single aspect of the development, except the two most critical ones, in terms of human safety and efficacy,” Slaoui said. 

All of this is being done for a portfolio of vaccines, Slaoui said, “because we want at least one of them to work. And, ideally, all of them to work.” 

The director of Ohio’s Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, Annette Chambers-Smith, has tested positive for Covid-19, according to a statement released by the agency on Monday.

Chambers-Smith got tested on Friday after not feeling well during the week, the statement said.

Contact tracing is currently underway to identify any staff and personnel from the department that Chambers-Smith may have come into contact with, although the director has not physically been inside a prison since June 26, and has not been at the correctional facility’s Operation Support Center since last Tuesday.

Chambers-Smith is currently working from and managing her symptoms at home, which are mild at this time, the agency said.

Tighter coronavirus measures have been introduced in Oldham, a city in northern England, after a sharp rise in infections there, the City Council said in a statement on Tuesday. 

Residents are being asked not to receive social visits at home and to keep two meters apart from friends and family when seeing them outside, according to the statement.

Clinically vulnerable people whose shielding period was due to to end on July 31 are being asked to continue shielding until August 14, and care homes will not relax restrictions on visitors. Last week, some restrictions were dropped on care home visits in England, allowing one single visitor per resident.

The new guidance is being issued in order to avoid a local lockdown, the council said, after the number of people testing positive for Covid-19 increased from 26 in the week ending on July 17, to 119 in the week ending July 25, according to the statement. 

A “large number” of recent cases were in the Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities — just over 65% cases in the last seven days, the council said on its website.

“We’re urging residents to continue to take the risk of coronavirus seriously and to stick to the guidelines,” said Councillor Arooj Shah, deputy leader of the Oldham Council.

“The best way to avoid infection is to limit contact with others as much as possible and to stay home wherever you can, including working from home. Limit contact with other people and respect social distancing where you do go out; keeping at least 2 meters from those not in your household and avoid shaking hands or hugging,” Shah added.

“We know that people across Oldham desperately want to see their friends and family, and get back to normal. But these restrictions are essential if we are to stop the spread of Coronavirus and prevent a strict local lockdown being put in place, as we have seen elsewhere in the country.”

The measures went into effect Tuesday and will continue for the next two weeks, the Oldham Council said in the statement. 

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said Tuesday that schools in her state should be open. 

Noem cited a number of reasons including mental and emotional health, the limitations of remote learning, child abuse and neglect, as well as data that shows “children are at far greater risk of critical illnesses from influenza than they are Covid-19.”

She quoted from Toronto Sick Kids saying, “The evidence is mounting that children may be less susceptible to this virus and may be less likely to transmit that virus to other. They also said the risks of infection and transmission in children, which appear to be minimal, need to be balanced with harms risks of school closure, which is impacting their physical and their mental health. On balance it is recommended that children return to schools.”

Noem reiterated her position that she is against a statewide mask mandate and again cited Toronto Sick Kids saying, “It is impractical for a child to wear a mask for the duration of the school day.”

She said the most efficient way to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in children is for them to wash their hands. 

The governor said teachers who have underlying health conditions have options like social distancing, masking, washing their hands or teaching online. She said she is discouraging schools from setting case thresholds “because they will be calling off school all the time.” Noem said schools should instead focus on hospitalizations as they consider when cancellation may be necessary. 

Noem also said schools in her state can expect more state and federal dollars to better equip them as they re-enter the classroom in the era of Covid-19.