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Aid from federal ‘surge response team’ arrives in Missouri | The Kansas City Star
CORONAVIRUS
begin quote from:https://www.kansascity.com/news/coronavirus/article252636813.html
Federal ‘surge response team’ starts in Springfield amid southwest Missouri variant spike
A CDC epidemiologist has arrived in southwest Missouri as part of a White House-supported “surge response team” to combat the recent outbreak of the aggressive delta COVID-19 variant.
The epidemiologist is working out of Springfield, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services spokeswoman Lisa Cox. Another federal worker could arrive next week to “support communications,” Cox said.
The White House confirmed Wednesday evening that a two-person team has deployed to Missouri at the state and Greene County’s request. The team is committed to the state through August 6.
The CDC epidemiologist will provide assistance with genetic sequencing and data analysis as health officials investigate an outbreak potentially related to the delta variant, a Biden administration official said.
In addition, the CDC has provide a remote risk communication specialist to assist the state’s Bureau of Immunizations combat the issue of vaccine hesitancy and low vaccination rates, which has caused COVID cases to surge in the state.
Missouri requested the help from the federal government’s newly announced teams, The Star reported last week, as it faces low vaccination rates and a surge in COVID-19 cases driven by the more infectious and deadly delta variant.
Hospitals have been overwhelmed in southwest Missouri, where no county has more than 35% of its population fully vaccinated, according to health department data.
On Wednesday, Mercy Hospital Springfield chief administrative officer Erik Frederick said the hospital had 120 COVID-19 patients, and 88% of its intensive care unit patients were on ventilators. Less than 5% were fully vaccinated, he posted on social media.
On July 4, the hospital ran out of ventilators. Mercy hospitals in St. Louis and northwest Arkansas sent supplies.
Mercy announced Wednesday it would require vaccines of all its employees by Sept. 30.
On Tuesday, the Springfield-Greene County Health Department reported 17 deaths between June 21 and July 4. Health officials said none were fully vaccinated.
Dr. Cameron Webb, White House senior policy adviser for COVID-19 equity, told The Star on Wednesday the federal response teams would involve “close coordination” between federal and state officials to identify places at risk of the next surge.
The federal government will provide resources for sequencing COVID-19 tests to identify variants and encourage vaccinations, Webb said. That could include door-to-door promotion of the vaccine.
“In the places where we think that kind of approach is going to be impactful, certainly, we’re going to encourage it,” Webb said. “There’s no one-size-fits-all with this pandemic. We’ve seen that in every aspect of this pandemic. So this is truly right-sizing the intervention to the locality.”
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