School District Spokesperson Pegge Erkeneff reports low Covid-19 levels in schools, For graduation ceremonies, masking is not required but is recommended for immunocompromised people looking to attend. Erkeneff also said the school district Covid dashboard reports 0 cases out of 100,000 people for the past seven days, which is incorrect.
“The COVID dashboard. The data we get from the state right now is there's a glitch in it. And so it's showing low for all areas. And we're working with the state to get that fixed. There was an issue yesterday it, was fixed. And when I just looked this, this morning, it was down again. So our IT departments letting the state No. So if you go to the dashboard, it's a little bit false in that we aren't completely with zero cases on the peninsula,” Erkeneff said.
SPH in Homer reports 4 ER visits and 2 new hospitalizations related to Covid. On behalf of the Hospital, Derotha Ferraro reports 379 tests were collected and of those 25 were positive. She said we’ve been holding pretty steady for the past couple of weeks.
“We've been rated that six or 7% positivity rate for the last several weeks, basically, since April 12. So no significant change, really there in the positivity rate,” Ferraro said.) Reflecting on the past two years of the pandemic, Public Health Nurse Lorne Caroll went over some of the obstacles the community and healthcare system faced. Caroll compared the Covid pandemic with World War Two, citing the similar economic, behavioral, social and cultural wellness issues.
At the beginning of the pandemic, hospitals and clinics were “swamped” with Covid-19. Caroll said the initial development and subsequent release of the vaccines were paramount to the treatment and prevention efforts.
“It took us about a year as a nation to get access to any kind of vaccine. And when those vaccines were released, we knew and have enjoyed high efficacy. And so these vaccines have really decreased the total number of deaths that we've had to suffer in our statement nation, but they've also slowed down the demand on health care systems. And that's been a win, and that's great,” Caroll said.
Thursday’s Covid Brief lasted longer than usual this week and is packed with information. To hear the whole Brief go to kbbi.org or find the podcast on your favorite app.
