Health officer points to boosters to halt COVID-19 surge

The Associated Press/File photo
Pre-loaded syringes with COVID-19 vaccine are ready as medical staff vaccinate students at KIPP Believe Charter School in New Orleans on Jan. 25.
The Associated Press/File photo Pre-loaded syringes with COVID-19 vaccine are ready as medical staff vaccinate students at KIPP Believe Charter School in New Orleans on Jan. 25.


With the number of active cases and hospitalizations back on the rise due to the spread of the COVID-19 virus, Garland County Health Officer Dr. Gene Shelby is focusing on booster shots as the key to keeping the numbers from going any higher.

In his weekly COVID-19 report this week, he noted 52 new cases for the week of May 29 to June 5 -- down from 54 last week, and up from 37 the week prior. The number of active cases in the county, however, rose from 24 to 103, as of Monday morning, marking the highest weekly increase since January, and highest number of active cases since the end of February.

"We've seen this kind of gradual increase over the last couple of months, and then we've also seen an increase in our number of new positive cases. And the thing that's bothersome is the absolute numbers are probably not that accurate because so many people are doing home testing and it's not reported. And so the numbers that are recorded are probably 50% or less of the total number of cases that we have in the county," he said.

When looking at the numbers for April, May and June of last year, Shelby said they are pretty much the same for this year at that time. July then saw a large surge in the number of cases with the onset of the delta variant.

"There's obviously a lot of differences between the last year and this year, in terms of the vaccinations," he said. "Also we were dealing with the delta variant last summer, and now we're on a subvariant of omicron, which appears not to be near as deadly or cause as much real disease as the delta variant. But it's still kind of a bothersome trend that we're seeing."

In the local hospitals' reports this week, CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs and National Park Medical Center reported a total of four COVID-19 patients, with one in intensive care. Shelby noted the hospitals, for the last three to four weeks, had not had any COVID-19 patients.

The state as a whole grew by 805 cases on Tuesday, with the number of COVID-19 patients in the state's hospitals increasing to a new two-month high of 135.

Shelby said the omicron subvariants are "very, very contagious," but he believes the reason for the surge might be due in part to the relaxation of masking and social distancing requirements following the decrease in the number of cases.

This simply makes the virus easier to spread, he said, and with it being a much milder disease, he believes there are a lot of asymptomatic carriers of it.

"I think there's probably a lot of variables, and generally looking at other places that have had even bigger surges than we've had, they haven't had a lot of really severe cases or deaths at this point. It's definitely an upward trend, and I guess one of the concerns that I would have is that one of the reasons that we had such a low number of cases over the past few months is that we have had more people getting vaccinated and getting their boosters," he said.

Because of the fact the county has seen so many cases, he said, a lot of the immunity in the community has been from people that have recovered from the infection.

"The immunity that people have from a prior infection is really variable, from the way I understand it," he said. "And I think the guidelines from the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) is that someone who had a case will probably have some immunity for about three months. So I think what we're seeing is that we had so many people that were infected last year, that their immunity from that infection is probably waning and going away so that people are able to be reinfected. And I think that might be part of what we're seeing."

The second booster has been approved for people over 50, Shelby said, noting, "Initially, we had such low numbers in the community that it didn't seem like it was necessary at this point, because normally these respiratory viruses are spread more with the colder weather. But with the numbers rising this high, I really encourage anyone that is eligible for the second booster to go ahead and get it."

The Hot Springs/Garland County COVID-19 Task Force is currently only meeting as needed during the summer months, but Shelby said if the numbers continue going up, they will go back to the weekly meetings.


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