****Local COVID 19 updates****
This page will be updated at 8 pm daily with any pertinent information, updated last at 9:00 pm EST March 31, 2020
New or important information bolded.
The new numbers for Florida for today are 6741 cases with 85 deaths. Lee County’s numbers are 207 total cases and 8 deaths. Charlotte County has 24 cases and 0 deaths.
Over 250 million people in 30 states have STATEWIDE “stay at home” orders. Florida is NOT one of them. Florida has several counties that have initiated their own “stay at home” orders. Neither LEE nor CHARLOTTE county is one of those.
If you happened to see The White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing today, you saw Dr Birx show important graphs that demonstrated what a difference the staying at home orders along with social distancing and hand washing can do. The data was presented to justify the President’s recommendations to extend social distancing and mitigation efforts for another 30 days. She noted that CA and WA are now seeing much fewer new cases of COVID 19 and that suggests that the effort is working. NY, NJ and CT however, are still on a steep upward curve for new cases, despite staying at home. A second graph showed Italy to be starting to see lower numbers of new cases after 4 weeks of strict “stay at home” mitigation. Her main point was “This starts and ends with communities.” I would strongly encourage each of us to take a strong stand for our own community and do our best to follow the President’s Coronavirus Guidelines for America: 30 days to slow the spread. These guidelines can be found at:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/03.16.20_coronavirus-guidance_8.5x11_315PM.pdf
If you are SICK, assume you have “IT” and take appropriate action to protect those around you. STAY HOME and ISOLATE yourself to limit contact with others, even in your own household.
If you are EXPOSED to someone SICK, then QUARANTINE. This means limit your own movement in the community and limit contact with others for 14 days from the exposure.
ISOLATION separates SICK people with a contagious disease from people who are NOT SICK.
QUARANTINE separates and restricts the movement in society of people who were EXPOSED to a contagious disease to see if they BECOME SICK.
These recommendations are directly from the Florida Department of Health and the CDC.
More details on self-isolation and quarantine can be found by following these links.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/guidance-prevent-spread.html
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/steps-when-sick.html
If you think you want a TEST, here is the contact information for the closest drive thru testing sites for Lee County.
Page Field 5200 Captain Channing Page Drive, Ft Myers (239)343-9800
NCH Downtown Hospital 350 7th St N, Naples (239)624-4443.
Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp will also RUN the test, but they will not collect the specimens.
You will need an appointment and a doctor’s order and they will screen you when you call to see if you “fit criteria” and the decision to test is ultimately determined by a public health official. By the way the accuracy of the test is about 60%. That means it is 40% unreliable!
The physicians at BGHC are not writing orders for these tests. These test kits, testing supplies and protective gear to safely collect the specimens are in EXTREMELY SHORT SUPPLY and should be reserved for those that are sick enough to be admitted to the hospital. Hospitalized patients NEED TO BE TESTED in order to prevent exposure of other patients already compromised by illness as well as to PREVENT FURTHER EXPOSURE of VALUABLE FRONT LINE HEALTHCARE PERSONNEL, whose supply is already being affected by their own illnesses and quarantines.
I do not know of any drive-thru testing sites in Charlotte County and I believe, you are required to be tested in your county of residence for epidemiologic reasons and are asked for proof of residence prior to testing.
If you do get tested, you will then WAIT, according to the information from the Lee County Commisioners Emergency Meeting 3/30/20, 10 DAYS FOR RESULTS. Once more testing and different types of testing are available, then it will possible to have more useful information. The limited tests available now, only tell us WHO IS SICK (remember, if you’re sick, assume you have it), NOT WHO HAS RECOVERED and the RECOVERED are who we need to search out to help all of us get back on our feet; physically, economically and mentally. This is coming, but until then, we need to continue to stay at home.
Do I think as a medical professional that there have been/are/or will be cases on this island? Absolutely. I assume EVERYONE has it, whether you are sick or not, and I take appropriate precautions. Without the ability to have any test confirmation, I cannot state that there are or aren’t cases on this island. BUT IT DOES NOT MATTER. IF YOU’RE SICK, do the right thing and act responsibly. If you’re not sick, assume everyone could give it to you and practice social distancing. Encourage others to take responsibility for their own actions as well.
NO ONE IS IMMUNE, even Boca Grande-ers. Be responsible for YOURSELF. If each INDIVIDUAL does this, the WHOLE community becomes responsible by default. I am doing my best to do this for you. Can you say the same?
Look what others have done to help decrease the spread:
The Inn has closed to the influx of spring reservations. Precautions are in place on the golf course and tennis facilities for continuous cleaning of carts and bathrooms, one golfer per cart, etc.
The other Clubs have been lovingly aggressive in placing precautions.
The restaurants have moved to take out only.
The shops have closed.
The beaches and parks are closed.
The Clinic has canceled all but the most urgent appointments and these are screened for symptoms, travel, exposure, etc. before they even walk through the door. We are all answering calls and emails continuously and doing our best to keep up with developments locally, nationally and worldwide in order to learn what HAS WORKED in places that are ahead of us in this fight so we can then put them in place for us. We have moved to teams of staff so that if one of us is exposed, it does not affect our ability to continue to provide the care and advice that we are able to give. We have been in contact, sometimes daily, with those that have symptoms and questions.
The government, both locally and statewide, has been reluctant to provide aggressive measures in the form of mandates and executive orders so the Clinic along with the assistance of our Board and others, has tried to reinforce the “recommendations” that do exist in our community with phone calls, emails, hand delivered letters and personal visits to businesses, daily conference calls with Lee County officials and strong medical data driven emails to the Governor and State Senators.
It is human nature NOT to ISOLATE. We are SOCIAL creatures. Without a statewide mandate to “stay at home”, it will not happen. Even WITH a mandate, it will not happen completely.
The residents here, and in the rest of the state, have done a great job of “staying at home”. It’s the visitors that seem to be less compliant. We all use the same grocery stores, pharmacies and gas stations and that non-compliance then makes our own efforts to prevent chances for exposure ineffective. The message needs to be that it is not the time to come to Boca Grande for vacation. We are closed.
I cannot stress enough for EACH ONE OF US TO DO THE RIGHT THING AND TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR OURSELVES. It will take everything we have TOGETHER to get through this TOGETHER. -Dr Lauren Hana
Please see the websites below for more detailed information on the current pandemic numbers.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/specific-groups/high-risk-complications.html
http://www.floridahealth.gov/newsroom/2020/03/031620-1253-covid19.pr.html
https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
https://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/coronavirus-resource-center
Health Advisory... If you are experiencing fever and/or respiratory symptoms please call the Clinic at 941-964-2276 for instructions prior to your visit.
Thank you.
New Patient Portal ... We are implementing a NEW PATIENT PORTAL! All current portal users will soon be receiving an email to set up their NEW portal account. Please be patient during this process as your previous portal account is no longer accessible. We look forward to the new portal and we think you will too!
Office Hours ... The Boca Grande Health Clinic Hours of Operation are 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM Monday thru Friday, except Holidays. If you need to reach the on-call physician after hours, call 941-964-2276 for instructions.
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