Covid surging in Bonaire

[Steelyeyes]

I am not optimistic. "You can't tell ME how to celebrate Easter!"

We get food delivered sometimes. Today was fish. Lauri (masked and distanced) said the place looks like a ghost town today. That doesn't mean that people aren't hiding from view in large groups though. I hope we can get through without losing more people. That's probably overly optimistic too.

 

[deco_martini]

Vacc rates Up
Spring Sun is helping people's immune systems
Tradewinds

Surging Cases??? Weird.

 

[Steelyeyes]

Vacc rates Up
Spring Sun is helping people's immune systems
Tradewinds

Surging Cases??? Weird.

The police had to break up a bunch of large gatherings of people. Most of those folks were in the 30-39 year age group, oddly enough that was the age group with the most positive tests in the beginning and then it worked it's way out from there.

There have been a few outbreaks centered in schools that many folks thought shouldn't have been open during Stage 5 measures, we're currently at Stage 6 which is the highest level. Several teachers got Covid, then lots of kids got it (one class had every kid that was tested, about 3/5 of the class, test positive) then a few parents got it and one of those parents died from it.

The numbers are trending down with quite a large drop today but that may be due to lower levels of testing around the holiday than actual progress. We'll see later in the week.

 

[Steelyeyes]

The numbers for yesterday were wrong. The number of people recuperated was counted double. Still not a lot of testing and the news isn't really good.

From the OLB crisis site:

"Bonaire 5 April: 6 new cases out of 18 tests (33.33% test positivity rate). 1 recuperation. 22 total hospitalizations: 16 on Bonaire (of which 5 are in ICU), 1 in Aruba, 5 in Colombia. Very sadly, two additional deaths. Condolences to the families."

It's worse in Curacao. Travelers from the Netherlands are urged to return as fast as is feasible. 16 nurses and 4 doctors are coming in from the Netherlands to help the staff in Curacao. Later 7 more doctors and three more nurses should be following. They are actually getting volunteer medical staff from the US soon as well.

 

[scuba127]

Whats the status on vaccines? As I understand it you get around 30% of the population vaccinated you've got a shot at out running the virus.

 

[deco_martini]

The numbers for yesterday were wrong. The number of people recuperated was counted double. Still not a lot of testing and the news isn't really good.

From the OLB crisis site:

"Bonaire 5 April: 6 new cases out of 18 tests (33.33% test positivity rate). 1 recuperation. 22 total hospitalizations: 16 on Bonaire (of which 5 are in ICU), 1 in Aruba, 5 in Colombia. Very sadly, two additional deaths. Condolences to the families."

It's worse in Curacao. Travelers from the Netherlands are urged to return as fast as is feasible. 16 nurses and 4 doctors are coming in from the Netherlands to help the staff in Curacao. Later 7 more doctors and three more nurses should be following. They are actually getting volunteer medical staff from the US soon as well.

That is still very curious. Covid shouldn't be hospitalizing people who are below 70 and aren't severely overweight.

I'm surprised islands didn't have the equivalent of chicken pox parties for under-50 healthy people last year so people would get immune fast.

We should have done the same in the US...

 

[Joneill]

That is still very curious. Covid shouldn't be hospitalizing people who are below 70 and aren't severely overweight.

COVID absolutely is generally far more serious for older folks, those with underlying health issues and and those that are overweight. However, that impact is not exclusive to those groups.

A recent CDC report indicated that ~78% of hospitalizations and deaths involved overweight or obese individuals - but that still means that ~22% of people with those outcomes were not overweight or obese...

 

[deco_martini]

The other 22% are age/co-morbities and the vast amounts of real world data we have now basically agrees with that view of reality.

 

[Steelyeyes]

What I've heard through the grapevine is that pretty much all of our mortalities were people with comorbidities. I've had friends in the US that have had it and even some of the pretty healthy ones had a rough go. One spent the night in the hospital he worked at (he's ICU staff) and thought he was going to die. He even had the talk about his DNR and that he refused to be intubated. I'd prefer the vaccination route since it's the least risky.

 

[rmorgan]

In early March, >53% of infections on Bonaire were B.1.1.7 (UK) variant. Dollars to lion fish burgers it’s a much higher percentage now. B.1.1.7 is more contagious, infects more kids and younger patients than the original, and patients developing COVID-19 from the variant apparently have fewer comorbidities (e.g., school sports may be a significant vector). Kids bringing it home to their families is a significant change. Perhaps these factors help explain why Bonaire’s having such a hard time quelling the tide.