BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
GREEN COVE SPRINGS— The Florida Department of Health’s administrator in Clay County said COVID-19 cases dropped to 275 during the first week in October and that the county’s positivity rate is at seven percent.
“At one point, we were at that in a day,” Heather Huffman told Clay county commissioners of the 275-case week. “The goal was to get under 10% (positivity rate) and stay below 10%.”
Huffman said death statistics continue to be reported from the Delta surge that occurred over the summer.
“We’ve had a total of 679 (Clay County deaths), with 287 of them since July 1,” she said. “Forty-two percent of our deaths came this summer, so it hit us very hard.”
Huffman said that 56% of the county’s population has been fully vaccinated.
She added that a third dose of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines have been authorized and are intended for immunocompromised individuals.
“What we know from the data is that those individuals don’t have as good of an effective rate with the two-dose series and so they do need that third booster,” she said. “The criteria for that is 65 and older, those living in long-term care facilities, those with underlying health conditions and those at high risk for occupational exposure, such as those that work in emergency rooms (and) doctors’ offices, that have a lot of patient face-to-face time.”
Huffman said that Pfizer is seeking approval for vaccinating 5-to-11-year-old children. Currently vaccines are only available to individuals 12 and older.
She said the FDA is also looking at a new pill made by Merck to treat the virus.
“That’s supposed to be for people that are COVID-19 positive and that have mild to moderate symptoms,” she said. “It’ll be an antiviral medication similar to Tamiflu, so, it’s a little bit less costly; it’s more convenient. You don’t have to get shots like monoclonals and those kinds of things.”
