Fauci: US is 'out of the pandemic phase'

C. A. Bridges, Fort Myers News-Press
·4 min read

Welcome to today's edition of the Florida Coronavirus Watch Newsletter.

As COVID cases and, consequently, COVID-related news dwindle, we have reduced the frequency of our Coronavirus Watch Newsletter to twice weekly. You can expect the newsletter in your inbox Mondays and Thursdays — or as urgent news dictates. Thank you for reading.

Here's what's happening

- Vaccine for children updates: Moderna has submitted a request for emergency use authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine for children 6 months through 5 years old, the company announced Thursday morning.

And Pfizer and BioNTech have requested that the Food and Drug Administration authorize a COVID-19 booster shot for children ages 5-11.

- Why Dr. Fauci is saying the US is 'out of the pandemic phase' of COVID-19: "We are certainly right now in this country out of the pandemic phase," Fauci told PBS' Judy Woodruff. "Namely, we don't have 900,000 new infections a day, and tens and tens and tens of thousands of hospitalizations, and thousands of deaths. We are at a low level right now."

Although metrics in the United States have improved since the winter, Fauci said he does not believe the country would eradicate COVID-19. "if you will look at the global situation, there is no doubt this pandemic is still ongoing," he added.

(Fauci later clarified on NPR that he meant the "acute component of the pandemic phase.")

- After that last omicron surge, the CDC says that nearly 60% of all Americans and 75% of kids have been infected with COVID-19. New government data, released Tuesday, looked at blood drawn for medical purposes during that timeframe and found antibodies to the virus that causes COVID-19 in nearly 60% of people, up from one-third just three months earlier.

"We do believe there is a lot of protection in the communities both from vaccination as well as from boosting and from prior infections," Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said. Vaccination and boosting provide more reliable protection, she said.

- 'It’s not over.' After enduring two years of the pandemic, Florida A&M University's COVID-19 testing site is still going strong. It's been moved around and daily testing numbers have fluctuated through the waves, but there are no plans to stop now.

“Even now, we’re seeing increasing positivity rates,” FAMU Director of Student Health Services Tanya Tatum said, “but it’s harder for people to recognize because they are not seeing the high hospitalizations as before.”

- Florida asks school districts to return any unspent COVID-19 relief funds from the second round. Most school districts have not spent all of their money, which was initially said to be available to them through September. The Florida Department of Education, in an April 15 memo, is now saying districts must give back certain unspent funds and reapply for the grants.

Problem is, some districts say they haven’t used the money because the federal government said the funds would be available through the end of September, some has been earmarked (but not spent) for other initiatives, and some planned for additional staff, new technology and personal protective equipment to address COVID-19 related challenges isn't paid for in a single lump payment.

- Florida honors 30 deputies who fell in the line of duty; 23 of them died of COVID. Of the other seven, two died of vehicular assault, one was killed in a motorcycle crash and three died after heart attacks. Nassau County deputy Joshua Moyers was killed by gunfire after being shot twice during a traffic stop in September.

To date, there are more than 400 names engraved on the wall with at least one officer from 63 of Florida's 67 counties.

COVID info to know

COVID-19 will be an issue for a long time to come, and we think more education is better. Here's what you need to know.

ABOUT COVID

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TESTING

DO YOU HAVE COVID?

What do you want to know about COVID-19? You ask, we'll try to answer

From a reader: "Where can I find up to date information about Lee County hospital capacity now that Lee Health stopped publishing the information?"

You can find Lee County COVID-19 hospital capacity numbers, including inpatient beds and ICU beds, at our database site at https://data.news-press.com/covid-19-hospital-capacity/ . The numbers and percentages are 7-day averages, not current numbers. You also can change the dropdown to see any county in Florida.

There's actually a lot of information available on USA Today-Florida's data pages. Head to your local paper, click on the dropdown (down arrow) in the top navigation bar and click Data. (If you don't see that option there, just replace "www" in the URL with "data" and hit Enter.) You can see information on local COVID vaccinations, real estate market reports, storm trackers, how your representatives and senators voted, restaurant inspections, maps of sex offenders and other crime, bridge inspections and much more.

Anything you'd like to know? Ask your questions here.

Thank you for reading! We appreciate you trusting our statewide journalists to keep you safe and informed. If you are encouraged by our work and want to support your local journalists, please consider subscribing. Know someone who would benefit from this newsletter? Forward this email so they can sign up.

Chris' note of the day: One of my favorite holidays is coming this Saturday: Independent Bookstore Day! Started in 2015, this is a one-day national party that takes place at hundreds of indie bookstores across the country. Some stores have author events, games, readings, contests and other fun things and there are exclusive books and stuff you can only get Saturday. Or you could just go to support local businesses and get a great book. Or two. Or twelve. If you need ideas, here are some books that just came out.

Here's what else is happening with the coronavirus in Florida today.

— C. A. Bridges, cbridges@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Fauci: US is 'out of the pandemic phase'