The number of COVID-19 cases in the hospital continues to decline from its high-water mark in mid-January. On Feb. 5, we had 107 COVID patients and a total census of 268 patients in the hospital, which is well within the range of our licensed beds. While this trend is encouraging, our ICU continues to be impacted and we still have work to do. Concern remains as new variants, as well as the reopening of businesses, could drive the numbers back up.

We will not be scheduling any more regular COVID rounds. Many of the COVID related discussions will go back to department meetings. I've had quite a few folks contacting me for information about COVID variants. Here is the video recording of the COVID variants presentation (it's only 13 minutes long!) at the recent Department of Medicine meeting. I have also attached the slides from the presentation for you to review.

When will we achieve herd immunity? On average, the US is administering 1.3 million shots per day, and there are plans to scale up. You can calculate this yourself by going to the site Are We Vaccinating Fast Enough?. Vaccinations have proved spectacularly effective in Israel, where only 531 out of 750,000 vaccinated people have tested positive for COVID-19 (0.07%) (the BMJ).