Lee Health: Resurge possible without vaccination increase
In concluding her Q&A with members of the Sanibel & Captiva Islands Chamber of Commerce during a Sept. 15 virtual business meeting, Lee Health Chief Quality and Patient Safety Officer Dr. Stephanie Stovall expressed concern that without a significant increase in coronavirus vaccinations, we will see another spike in cases in six months.
“Vaccination is absolutely the way we’re going to get this pandemic under control and not continue to see surges,” she said, adding that masking is the second most important precautionary measure. “All of us thought, even me, in June or so, ‘Man, we’ve come out on other side of this.’ I don’t think we could have predicted what late July and August were going to completely look like.”
Stovall shared charts showing how Florida and Lee County compare globally and nationally in terms of current cases, deaths and vaccinations. She acknowledged a slight drop-off recently in cases throughout the United States and that Florida no longer ranks as the state with the most cases.
“Yes, we love the drop-off,” Stovall said. “We are encouraged by the drop-off. It is definitely hopeful for our community that we’re seeing fewer confirmed cases. We’re just not quite out of the woods yet.”
She pointed out that the high volume of ICU use and patients on ventilators offset the drop-off in number of cases for now.
At the meeting, chamber President and Chief Executive Officer John Lai announced that Luminary is “a go” this year on Dec. 3 and 4.
“We are going to do it a little bit differently this year,” he said. “All the participating stores and businesses will be required to mask indoors. And we will be handing out not only the glowsticks and maps but also masks.”
Stovall commended the chamber for its cautious approach to returning to normalcy.
“Thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking that into consideration and protecting us all,” she said.
Bailey’s General Store sponsored the meeting.