Daily Stats (Updated 4/16/2020 at 5:30 pm)
As of today, Lee Health has:
- 67 COVID-19 patients isolated in our hospitals
- Submitted 7,020 specimens for testing
- Discharged 123 patients
- 179 employees quarantined; 31 employees exposed at work and positive with COVID-19
- Click here for graphs showing a running total of specimens collected for testing and positive cases hospitalized.
Today’s News
Lee Health Joins Mayo Clinic Study
Dr. Larry Antonucci, M.D., MBA, president & CEO, is proud to share this exciting announcement:
“We are excited to announce that Lee Health was accepted and registered as a participating site in Mayo Clinic’s COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Study. Starting Monday, April 20, patients who are admitted to Lee Health hospitals with proven SARS-COV-2 infection (the virus that causes COVID-19) may qualify to enroll in this clinical trial, which provides access to experimental convalescent plasma. Convalescent plasma refers to blood plasma collected from people who have recovered from COVID-19. That plasma is then used to treat others with advanced illness.
Enrollment in the study is not guaranteed, as it is based on the protocol’s preset exclusion and inclusion criteria, as well as the availability of an appropriate blood-type matched unit of convalescent plasma.
To launch this study, Lee Health needs a supply of convalescent plasma. We are asking patients who have tested positive for the virus and recovered to donate blood at one of our donation sites. All donations collected by Lee Health will stay in our community and will be used exclusively for our patients.
While there is no known safe and effective treatment, this study is an exciting step in our fight against COVID-19. Based on the use of convalescent plasma to treat other viral infections, researchers hypothesize that the plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients may contain antibodies that may help fight the disease and help speed recovery. As in any clinical research study, it is unknown if the treatment will be therapeutic, and there are risks involved. All participants will sign informed consent, as required by the Mayo Clinic’s Institutional Review Board, a committee tasked with protecting the rights and welfare of human subjects.
If you have previously tested positive for COVID-19, and your symptoms resolved, and you later tested negative for the virus, please consider donating blood. Email COVID.plasma@LeeHealth.org to volunteer.
Thank you to our Lee Health team, including the teams at Shipley Cardiothoracic Center, who worked to secure our spot in this study. To all who can help supply the plasma that may help save lives in our community, we thank you, too.”
Support Local Restaurants and Our Health Care Heroes
Frontline Foods is an organization that raises money for local restaurants to prepare meals for health care staff on the frontlines. The nationwide program has over 500 volunteers, raised $2 million, and served more than 70,000 meals to health care teams in over 150 hospitals. This movement helps save local restaurants who have been impacted by shelter-in-place orders by using monetary donations to feed health care heroes. This initiative started organically in cities across the country and is now available in our community. Visit www.frontlinefoods.org/swfl for more information or to donate.
Small Gesture, Big Impact
Shayne, a local teen, wanted to create a small token of appreciation for our health care heroes. With the help of his 3D printer, Shayne made plastic mask straps. The straps connect to the mask bands worn by medical staff to help ease pressure on their ears and faces. Shayne prints about 30-40 straps a day and drops them off at our hospitals. Read his touching letter to our health care heroes, and see pictures of his strap at work, here.
We Are Deeply Honored
The Fort Myers Police Department and Lee County Sheriff’s Office have organized moving tributes for our health care staff this week. Be sure to follow @LeeHealth on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to see pictures of their inspiring salutes to our health care teams in the frontlines.
Thank you, B & I Contractors
Last month, we collaborated with B & I Contractors on the construction of our HEPA headboard chambers. These negative pressure chambers are critical to helping reduce the spread of COVID-19 in our hospitals. We value our relationship with B & I Contractors, and they created this heartwarming video filled with kind messages for our health care heroes. Thank you, B & I, we are touched!
~22,674 positive cases in Florida residents and 666 positive cases in non-Florida residents~
TALLAHASSEE — To keep Florida residents and visitors safe, informed and aware about the status of the virus, the Florida Department of Health has launched a COVID-19 dashboard that will be updated twice daily. The twice daily COVID-19 report now includes information by county about deaths related to staff or residents in long-term care facilities. Of the 1,454 cases of residents or staff in long-term care facilities, 136 have died. We also encourage all Floridians to take the COVID-19 Community Action Survey by visiting www.StrongerThanC19.com.
Today, as of 6 p.m., there are 23,340 total** Florida cases.
While Florida’s testing has increased over the past week, the percent of those testing positive for COVID-19 overall is 10 percent. Of the 10,957 tests performed on April 15, there were 1,265 positive results, or 12 percent.
Thirty-five people have died who tested positive for COVID-19 Charlotte, Collier, Dade, Highlands, Indian River, Manatee, Orange, Palm Beach, Polk, Santa Rosa, Seminole, St. Lucie, Suwannee and Volusia counties.
New Florida cases include:
- 443 additional positive COVID-19 cases (439 Florida residents and 4 non-Florida residents) reported to the Florida Department of Health.
- There are currently 22,674 positive cases in Florida residents and 666 positive cases in non-Florida residents.
Florida recently partnered with private laboratories around the state to expand COVID-19 laboratory testing capacity. This partnership will increase the number of tests conducted each day and ensure Floridians receive the critical health information they need in a timely manner.
Expansion to private laboratories changes the COVID-19 testing landscape in Florida. Private laboratories are running tests as they receive swab samples from practitioners. Testing and reporting times vary among commercial and DOH laboratories. Demographic information may be updated during investigations. These twice daily reports reflect the state’s efforts to accurately and transparently share information.
World Health Organization Update
SITUATION IN NUMBERS total (new) cases in last 24 hours
(last updated 10:00 AM CET 4/16/2020)
130 885 deaths (7875)
4239 deaths (38)
89 317 deaths (4710)
990 deaths (54)
5532 deaths (137)
30 245 deaths (2909)
550 deaths (27)
- No new country/territory/area reported cases of COVID-19 in the past 24
hours. - Speaking at the COVID-19 media briefing yesterday, WHO Director-General Dr
Tedros stressed that our “commitment to public health, science and to serving
all the people of the world without fear or favour remains absolute.” The
Director-General’s speech is available here. - WHO has released a substantial update to its COVID-19 dashboard, offering
better data visualization. The news article is available here and the dashboard
is available on the WHO COVID-19 webpage here. - Drinking alcohol does not protect you against COVID-19: existing rules and
regulations to protect health and reduce harm caused by alcohol such as
restricting access, should be upheld and even reinforced during the outbreak.
More on this is available here, and a factsheet on Alcohol and COVID-19 is
available here. - In India, WHO is deploying its national polio surveillance network and other
field staff to help with the COVID-19 response Find more on this here. - Oxygen therapy plays an extremely important role in case management and is
briefly explored in the ‘Subject in Focus’ below.