Highly contagious: 4 out of 10 patients at local clinic positive for COVID-19, doctor says

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The holidays and omicron variant are causing a spike successful COVID-19 investigating and cases crossed Northeast Florida.

Many investigating sites reopened Monday aft closing down for respective days due to the fact that of the Christmas holiday. The locations had lines gathering earlier they opened.

Duval County’s beaches drive-thru investigating site, astatine the erstwhile Kmart successful Neptune Beach, had a agelong enactment earlier 7 a.m. Monday. By 1 p.m., it reached capacity, with the contracted unit astatine Telescope Health doling retired much than 325 PCR and accelerated tests.

Staff said radical wanting COVID-19 tests should travel aboriginal Tuesday morning.

News4JAX visited the city-run Emmett Reed, Lane Wiley and Cuba Hunter assemblage centers connected Monday. All were engaged with a surge successful request for COVID-19 investigating crossed the area. More details astir capacities and pre-registration are disposable astatine JaxReady.com.

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LIST: COVID-19 investigating sites successful Northeast Florida

“Availability for investigating is ever helpful, is ever good,” said Dr. Jonathan Kantor with the Penn Center for Global Health. “Having radical adjacent person the bid of caput to beryllium capable to spell and get tested, I deliberation is helpful.”

With agelong lines astatine those government-run sites, galore radical are opting to spell the backstage investigating route. That includes pharmacies, doctor’s offices and urgent attraction centers similar Avecina Medical. Doctors determination said astir people’s security covers the tests, truthful they don’t person to wage retired of pocket.

However, getting an assignment tin instrumentality patience.

“It takes little interaction, little magnitude of microorganism to get individuals sick,” said Doctor Saman Soleymani, co-founder of Avecina Medical.

He said his company’s unit is seeing grounds numbers astatine their six clinics successful Duval, St. Johns and Clay counties. On Monday, helium said, much than 4 retired of 10 radical who instrumentality COVID-19 tests are positive, showing that the omicron variant is highly contagious.

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“We cognize that vaccination isn’t 100% palmy preventing you from catching the microorganism oregon passing it along,” Soleymani said. “So the champion happening to bash is to test, truthful if you trial idiosyncratic and place them early, past those individuals tin region themselves from the population.”

He besides said he’s seeing cases of reinfection, wherever radical who’ve recovered from the coronavirus are getting it again. However, helium noted with his patients, deaths and superior illnesses are low.

The bully quality is aboriginal probe suggests omicron whitethorn origin milder illnesses than past strains, similar the archetypal procreation and the delta variant. Kantor said he’s seen the omicron variant contiguous itself with mild symptoms similar those of a cold.

“There are a mates things that are feeding into the mildness of the symptoms of omicron. Right, there’s 1 factor, which is perchance that the microorganism itself, for a batch of people, whitethorn pb to much mild symptoms,” Kantor said. “The different is that truthful galore radical person either been vaccinated oregon been infected successful the past that these are each breakthrough infections, and typically breakthrough infections, successful general, are going to beryllium milder.”

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Soleymani said radical request to beryllium other cautious to not dispersed the coronavirus. They should isolate astatine the archetypal motion of symptoms and docket a trial arsenic soon arsenic possible. He said that volition chopped down connected assemblage spread.

“I consciousness similar this is going to beryllium conscionable similar past year,” Soleymani noted. “Holidays, radical getting together, New Year’s — there’s ever immoderate lag, and those radical that are getting infected are going to walk it on to different people.”

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