Covid Cases Creeping Back Up, Hospitalizations and 1st Death in Weeks Has Flagler Health Officials on Guard

In Flagler, 277 people have died of the disease so far, with the first death reported in April 2020.

Confirmed Covid case counts bottomed out at 41 for the week ending Nov. 12, the lowest total since a June lull, when numbers were in the low 30s for a few weeks, but counts have risen every week since, and health officials expect them to again exceed 100 when the numbers are tallied Friday. “On Thursday, December 2, we had 21 cases of covid, the Delta variant strain, for the first time since October 1,” Bob Snyder, the director of the Flagler Health Department, said. The positivity rate has increased from around 3 percent back up to 5.3 percent on Dec. 6. “Our director of nurses reported that our case investigators are seeing 15 to 20 cases per day now.”

“Cases were increasing slightly but they seem to be increasing a little faster over the last week, week and a half,” Snyder said, “and we’re watching the hospitalizations increase more than they have in quite a while again.” In early November, the inpatient admissions for Covid-19 at the hospital was zero for several days.

Cases in Flagler County schools are still very low, with a dozen students testing positive in the 10 days from Nov. 21 to Dec. 1, and just one staffer doing so. Since then, through today, eight students have tested positive and three staffers have.




The Omicron factor does not appear to be a factor yet in Flagler, though it has been detected in Florida, along with 19 other states, which means it’s only a matter of time–and not much time–before it spreads in Flagler. A hospital in Tampa first reported an Omicron variant in a patient this week. Most of the people who are getting tested for Covid by the Health Department’s regular clinics are travelers, traveling–and tourism–being the principal mean of transmission of new variants. That’s then followed by community spread.

Dr. Stephen Bickel, the medical director at the Flagler Health Department, said much about Omicron is still in the analysis phase–whether it spreads more rapidly, whether it’s more or less severe and–he spoke of it on Monday, before today’s development on that score–to what extend vaccines may be effective against it.

That was the good news today: Pfizer-BioNTech announced that their booster shots provide significant protection. “Preliminary laboratory studies demonstrate that three doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine neutralize the Omicron variant … while two doses show significantly reduced neutralization titers.” The companies said a third dose increases protection 25-fold compared to two doses. Put another way, three doses provide as much protection against Omicron as two doses do against previous variants. The two companies are developing a “a variant-specific vaccine for Omicron and expect to have it available by March in the event that an adaption is needed to further increase the level and duration of protection,” according to a release issued today. That will not affect the companies’ plan to have 4 billion doses available in 2022. Moiderna is also developing an Omicron-related vaccine.

A caveat: the Pfizer-BioNTech announcement is based on laboratory findings, not in individuals at large, and it’s still unknown how the Omicron variant affects severe cases of covid. None of that is unusual with that type of viruses. Flu vaccines are calibrated every year to confront new strains.




For now, Florida, after weeks of being the nation’s epicenter of spread and covid deaths, has benefited from milder weather, when people congregate indoors less. The virus’ centers of gravity have migrated north and west, particularly the Midwest, with cases rising sharply nationally every day this month and hospitalizations again on the rise. The death rate is still. But as weather cools in Florida and holidays bring people together, health officials are re-issuing cautions.

“People travel to Florida to get out of the colder weather. So that is something that we just need to be very mindful of,” Snyder said. “People need to make their own personal decisions. But if we’re seeing an increase in cases it might be time right now for folks to reconsider their decisions about not wearing a mask when they’re out and about and congregate in indoor settings. ”

The health department and 17 local pharmacies continue to administer vaccines, of which there is an abundant supply. The Health Department’s testing clinics across from the Airport Professional Building (from 9 to 11 a.m. this morning) has been drawing a protest of one person brandishing a “don’t tread on me” flag and signs saying “stop medical tyranny.” Vaccination clinics are actually held at the department’s facility on Dr. Carter Boulevard. Most of the vaccines administered in the county are booster shots, Snyder said, with 67 percent of the eligible population in the county (those 5 years old and up) now vaccinated.

“This is a time to not only reconsider mitigation strategies, but also the main, main messages is, if you are older and if you’re immunocompromised, now is the time to get vaccinated,” Snyder said. “And if you have already been vaccinated, now’s the time to get your booster shot, especially with not knowing the impact of Omicron. So it’s just time to be increasing our vigilance and time to be more mindful. Covid is not over as evidenced by this new variant and the more people we have who are not vaccinated, the more likely that we’ll have increased variants because it gives the virus an opportunity to to mutate as long as Covid is spreading in our communities, and the truly only way to stop it once and for all is to get the vaccine.”




Bickel said the nearly two years of battling Covid have yielded numerous strategies to fight the disease. That has not necessarily translated in as effective a fight as there could have been.

“We’ve learned a lot but I don’t know that we can apply a lot of it, except the science part, the vaccine part,” Bickel said, “because we just can’t stop fighting about it, arguing about it.” As examples, he mentioned the availability but limited use of rapid testing, which was proposed to the school district and declined, even though it could have cut absenteeism by up to 80 percent, in Bickel’s estimation, and of course the easy measure of mask-wearing, which remains a flash point. “So it’s a question of can we apply the science?” The often negative answer has ensured that the pandemic is not lacking for more lives to damage or destroy.