‘We should definitely be concerned.’ Miami-Dade’s COVID-19 cases, positivity rates soar

With a brand new wave of omicron COVID instances surging in Miami-Dade County, the % of native constructive exams, often called the positivity fee, has soared, representing a fourfold enhance since April and sure an undercount as a result of at-home testing.

On Monday, Miami-Dade County’s seven-day common COVID-19 positivity fee rose to 22 %, up from a 5 % fee on April 8, based on the county’s COVID-19 Day by day Dashboard. The newest quantity is nearing the charges on the top of the omicron surge in January, when positivity charges scaled 35%.

“We must always positively be involved now,” stated Mary Jo Trepka, an infectious illness epidemiologist and professor at Florida Worldwide College. “In truth, we should always have been involved a number of weeks in the past.”

Miami-Dade’s mayor acknowledged the rising case counts and positivity charges, however stated county residents are in a greater place to climate the surge, the sixth wave for the reason that coronavirus started in March 2020, because of their vaccinations.

“Miami-Dade is now in a brand new part of the pandemic,” the Workplace of Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava instructed the Miami Herald Thursday afternoon. “We’ve not crushed this virus, however we all know the way to management it. We’re probably the most vaccinated county in Florida and our protecting efforts are paying off.”

As of Thursday, 86% of Miami-Dade’s complete inhabitants was absolutely vaccinated, about 2.3 million folks. Florida’s absolutely vaccinated fee is 67.5 %; the U.S. fee is 66.7 %. Absolutely vaccinated means folks have obtained both the only dose J&J/Janssen vaccine or two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines. It doesn’t embody a booster, based on the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention.

Trepka says there’s a constructive be aware to the county’s excessive positivity fee: Hospitalizations haven’t reached the degrees throughout omicron’s preliminary surge, which began in December, peaked in January and commenced waning in February. Immunity from the virus, whether or not from vaccination or earlier an infection, is holding many out of the hospital.

“We’ve the workers, the beds and the assets to handle the present COVID-19 affected person quantity,” stated Dr. Aileen Marty, professor of Infectious Ailments within the Division of Medication at FIU Herbert Wertheim School of Medication.

READ MORE: Is it COVID or a chilly? Can drugs assist? What to find out about Florida surge

Two new omicron variants fueling surge

The rise in instances is being fueled by omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, that are making a surge in new COVID-19 instances throughout the nation. On Tuesday, the CDC reported the 2 variants, first recognized in South Africa in January and February, respectively, account for a mixed 13 % of U.S. instances for the week ended June 4.

Within the first week of Could, the 2 variants accounted for less than about 1 % of latest COVID instances, the CDC stated in its Tuesday replace, which was the primary time the CDC broke out the 2 variants in its weekly COVID-19 variant report.

Public well being specialists have stated these variants could possibly evade some immune protections, making them extra contagious.

On Tuesday, the primary three instances of the BA.4 variant have been present in Florida in Miami-Dade County, based on a lab report.

READ MORE: There’s a brand new, extra contagious omicron pressure, and it’s in Miami-Dade. Right here’s what we all know

Summer time surge

In Florida, instances and positivity charges started to rise at first of April. New instances slowly climbed, and by the tip of the month, hospitalizations began to inch up — though not almost to the degrees of the January surge. Deaths have remained comparatively low, with about 100 to 300 folks dying from COVID-19 weekly in Florida since April.

By the primary week of June, case counts topped the double digits. The state noticed its seven-day common of latest instances hit 10,927 on Thursday, almost double from a month in the past when the seven-day common was 5,424, based on Miami Herald calculations of CDC information.

Whereas Miami-Dade County shouldn’t be making new security suggestions, similar to requiring masks in county buildings — mandates county leaders adopted throughout earlier surges — the county says it has a plan to fight the surge.

Levine Cava launched her BEST Plan, which urges the neighborhood to get vaccinated and boosted, get examined when you’ve got signs or have been uncovered and keep dwelling when you really feel sick.

The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention is recommending all South Florida residents, no matter vaccination standing, put on a masks indoors in public and on public transportation. That’s as a result of South Florida’s 4 counties — Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Seashore and Monroe — have a excessive fee of neighborhood transmission, among the many highest within the nation.

Consultants are echoing the identical security measures.

“We should be sure that our individuals are updated on their COVID-19 boosters and influenza vaccines,” stated Marty.

Trepka harassed the significance of testing and staying dwelling when you really feel sick.

Unvaccinated filling up hospitals

In contrast to COVID-19 surges of the previous, hospitals haven’t change into overwhelmed.

The dominant circulating strains of omicron are extremely infectious and might trigger extreme illness, Marty stated. Nevertheless, excessive charges of vaccination in the neighborhood imply the infections don’t at all times result in hospitalization, though the immunocompromised are in danger.

However for many who haven’t been vaccinated, it’s one other story.

Says Marty: “76% of hospitalized sufferers have by no means been vaccinated for COVID-19, and nearly all vaccinated individuals who find yourself within the hospital are aged, immunocompromised, or produce other severe debilitating circumstances.”

Dr. Hany Atallah, chief medical officer of Jackson Memorial Hospital, stated Thursday nearly all of Jackson sufferers with COVID haven’t been vaccinated.

“We’re seeing additionally usually what we’ve seen previously, which is the protectiveness of vaccines,” Atallah stated. “So the people who find themselves within the hospital who’re vaccinated are typically much less sick than those that are within the hospital who’ve by no means been vaccinated.”

On Thursday, Jackson Memorial had 124 sufferers hospitalized with COVID, with 26 of these sufferers within the ICU. On Jan. 12, through the peak of the omicron variant, Jackson had 564 sufferers who have been hospitalized with COVID-19.

Throughout Florida, 3,105 hospitalized sufferers are suspected or confirmed to have COVID, with 297 within the ICU, based on Thursday’s report from the U.S. Division of Well being & Human Companies. Through the delta wave final summer time and the omicron wave in January, the variety of sufferers in Florida hospitals surpassed 15,000 a day.

Atallah stated present tendencies present hospitalizations lowering by the tip of June.

As healthcare employees toil by means of a sixth wave of the virus, he says it has been difficult to juggle skilled and private security.

“This has change into clearly a marathon,” he stated. “And the marathon shouldn’t be actually over.”