CMG COVID-19 Update 7.31.22
New or Updated This Week:
Additional Covid Vaccine Clinic for Young Children Saturday 8/6 – Second Shots Only (new)
Novavax Not Yet Available at CMG (new)
Viral Activity in the CMG Community (updated)
Hello again everyone. This is the 114th in a series of COVID-19 updates from Capitol Medical Group. These notices are meant to provide an update on the pandemic, explain procedures we have put in place to best serve you, and provide guidance about protecting yourselves and your families. New and updated sections are so indicated.
Additional Vaccine Clinic for Young Children Saturday 8/6 – Second Shots Only (new)
We know that many of you have been frustrated by an inability to get your young children vaccinated quickly. We are doing everything we can to make Covid vaccine available to as many of our young patients as quickly as we can. To that end, we have scheduled another Saturday vaccine clinic on 8/6. This clinic will only be for children age 6 months to 5 years who are in need of their second dose of vaccine.
As a reminder, the minimum spacing between dose 1 and dose 2 is 4 weeks for Moderna and 3 weeks for Pfizer. These are minimums – multiple studies in older children and adults have shown equal or greater efficacy when the spacing is longer. If your child currently has an appointment scheduled for a second dose later in the summer or early fall and you would like to move that appointment to the Saturday 8/6 clinic, please feel free to do so as long as the minimum spacing is observed.
Here is a link to the Covid vaccine scheduling page. Appointments are for CMG patients only at this time.
As they have done repeatedly, our nurses and staff will be working extra shifts to make this possible. They have been extraordinarily resilient and giving of themselves throughout the pandemic in order to serve the children of our community. Please be patient and kind when you see them.
Novavax Not Yet Available at CMG (new)
The Novavax Covid vaccine received an Emergency Use Authorization two weeks ago. It is approved for use as a primary series of two shots administered at least three weeks apart for those age 18 and up who have not yet been vaccinated. Novavax is not approved for use as a booster for those who have received other vaccines previously.
CMG has requested Novavax doses from the state but has not yet received a shipment. We will alert you here when we have Novavax in stock.
Viral Activity in the CMG Community (updated)
14 of 261 tests performed at CMG this week were positive, or 5.4%. This represents the second consecutive week of declining test positivity since our recent peak of 12.9% three weeks ago. We are hopeful this is a sign that viral activity is starting to abate in our community, but this is not yet clear.
The true number of cases in the CMG community continues to be higher than our numbers suggest, as CMG statistics do not include positive home tests. CMG’s testing numbers for the last 10 weeks:
7/24 – 7/30: 14 of 261 positive, 5.4%
7/11 – 7/23: 30 of 357 positive, 8.4%
7/10 – 7/16: 35 of 271 positive, 12.9%
7/3 – 7/9: 27 of 265 positive, 10.2%
6/26 – 7/2: 20 of 254 positive, 7.9%
6/19 – 6/25: 36 of 404 positive, 8.9%
6/12 – 6/18: 18 of 351 positive, 5.1%
6/5 – 6/11: 37 of 444 positive, 8.3%
5/29 – 6/4: 31 of 286 positive, 10.8%
5/22 – 5/28: 45 of 529 positive, 8.5%
Montgomery County moved into the CDC’s “High” Covid Community Level Status this week, prompting text and email alerts. This change was not because County cases are increasing – reported cases have actually decreased each of the last two weeks. The County is currently reporting 228 new cases per 100,000 population over the last 7 days, down from 247 last week and 265 the week prior (the actual numbers are much higher due to unreported home tests).
The County moved to the “High” designation because for the first time in months both the per capita Covid hospitalization rate and percentage of hospital beds occupied by Covid patients inched above the thresholds set by the CDC. This is not a surprise given the surge in cases that appears to have peaked two to three weeks ago. Hospitalizations are likely to decrease over the next few weeks, which will prompt a return to the “Medium” designation.
We don’t recommend paying a lot of attention to these designations. Hospitalizations are a lagging indicator, and the CDC’s threshold for cases in a community (200 per 100,000 population per week) was formulated before the advent of home tests that go unreported and is not an accurate measure.
There is still a good deal of viral activity in the area. As long as this is the case we will continue to recommend masking in indoor spaces.