Daily Stats (Updated 4/20/2020 at 7:00 pm)
As of today, Lee Health has:
- 75 COVID-19 patients isolated in our hospitals
- Submitted 7,914 specimens for testing
- Discharged 139 patients
- 165 employees quarantined; 30 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
Mayo Clinic’s COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Study Launches Today
Last week, we announced our partnership with the Mayo Clinic in their COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Study. We are excited to officially launch the program today and proud that more than 30 COVID-19 survivors have volunteered to donate blood. These people know what it is like to fight the virus and win, and we sincerely appreciate their willingness to help others in our community. If you or someone you know has recovered from previously testing positive for COVID-19 and are interested in donating blood for this study, please contact our blood centers at COVID.plasma@LeeHealth.org.
Editorial Urges Support for ‘Undersung Heroes’
Click here to read Brent Batten’s editorial, which ran in the Naples Daily News and The News-Press. Brent calls our health care teams the ‘undersung heroes,’ and encourages support for health care workers to ensure preparedness for any future health crisis.
Delivering Virtual Smiles to Our Community’s Senior Citizens
The COVID-19 pandemic has locked down senior living facilities across the country. Due to the visitation restrictions, seniors may be feeling lonely and isolated at this time. Kids with Compassion is an initiative designed to encourage and enable students to create compassionate artwork and cards to send virtually to seniors in assisted living, nursing homes, memory care and other senior facilities. It is a simple act of kindness that will lift the spirits of our community’s seniors, to participate visit www.healthylee.com/kids-with-compassion.
Support Local Restaurants While Feeding Our Health Care Heroes
Frontline Foods is an organization that raises money to deliver meals from local restaurants to health care staff on the frontlines. The grassroots 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 local restaurants stay afloat while feeding health care heroes. Frontline Foods is in over 35 cities across the country and is now available in our community. Visit www.frontlinefoods.org/swfl for more information or to donate.
Photos Celebrate Our Courageous Health Care Heroes
Our health care heroes are working tirelessly in our community’s fight against COVID-19. To honor them, The News-Press gathered these images that show their strength, bravery and commitment to combating COVID-19.
Video Honors the NICU Team’s Caring through COVID-19
The leadership team at Golisano Children’s Hospital created this emotional and inspiring video to thank our NICU team for continuing to provide exceptional care for our tiniest patients and their families, especially as they have had to limit visitation.
Thank you, Kinfay Moroti
For weeks, visual journalist Kinfay Moroti has followed our fight against COVID-19 and captured powerful images along the way. Last week, he captured the Fort Myers Police Department’s salute to our Lee Memorial Hospital staff. Click here to see his footage.
~26,329 positive cases in Florida residents and 729 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 is updated twice daily. Today, as of 6 p.m., there are 27,058 total** Florida cases.
There are currently 307 long-term care facilities with positive cases of COVID-19. The Florida Department of Health has published the list here. The twice daily COVID-19 report also includes information by county about deaths related to staff or residents in long-term care facilities. Of the 1,928 cases of residents or staff in long-term care facilities, 204 have died.
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 10,716 tests performed on April 19, there were 1,081 positive results, or 10 percent.
Thirty-four people have died who tested positive for COVID-19 Broward, Charlotte, Collier, Dade, Duval, Hernando, Highlands, Lake, Lee, Madison, Manatee, Orange, Palm Beach, Polk, Sarasota and Suwannee counties.
New Florida cases include:
- 398 additional positive COVID-19 cases (387 Florida residents and 11 non-Florida residents) reported to the Florida Department of Health.
- There are currently 26,329 positive cases in Florida residents and 729 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 4/20/2020)
- No new country/territory/area reported cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.
- The urgent need for a COVID-19 vaccine underscores the pivotal role immunizations play in protecting lives and economies. Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, marking the European Immunization Week 2020, stressed ‘we must not, especially now, let down our guard on immunizations’. WHO and UNICEF have released a joint statement to mark European Immunization Week 2020, which is available here.
- WHO has published a brief on the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in patients with COVID-19. Concerns have been raised that NSAIDs may be associated with an increased risk of adverse effects. However, as explained in the brief, at present there is no evidence of severe adverse effects. The brief is available here.
- WHO has recently published an updated strategy to help guide the public health response to COVID-19 which is available here, and is one of the topics for today’s ‘Subject in Focus’ below.
- An update on Emergency Medical Teams, the Global Health Cluster, the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, and Risk Communications and Community Engagement is also provided in today’s ‘Subject in Focus’ below.