Providers say COVID-19 still here, but people less worried

Jan. 30—A local clinic offered COVID-19 vaccinations at John Adams Elementary School in Scranton for three hours Saturday.

No one asked for one.

"But there were a handful that wanted the flu shot," said Joseph Hollander, CEO of the Scranton Primary Health Care Center, which organized the clinic.

As the World Health Organization's declaration of COVID-19 as a public health emergency of international concern turns 3 years old this week, COVID-19 has receded as a major concern among most people. Few people wear masks and social distancing is mostly a thing of the past.

A WHO advisory panel recommended Monday keeping the declaration in place, but acknowledged in a statement that the pandemic has reached "a transition point."

More people will probably gain immunity through infection or vaccination and that will mean fewer deaths, "but there is little doubt that this virus will remain a permanently established pathogen in humans and animals for the foreseeable future," the WHO's statement says.

That means a need for continued monitoring, even if humans have moved on.

"Last Thursday, we had about 30 people that we tested, and we ran a 71% positivity rate," Hollander said. "I think a lot of people are just — I hate to say it — so tired of this, that they're just going out and pushing along. And then all of a sudden it knocks them down, and then they figure, 'Well, I'd better get tested.'"

In the week ending Jan. 24, Pennsylvania added 10,940 new COVID-19 cases and 236 new deaths, including 1,036 more cases and 17 deaths in the seven-county Northeast Pennsylvania, the latest state Department of Health data shows. In all, the state has seen 3,469,076 cases — one person can have COVID multiple times and each counts as a case — and 49,633 in the region. The state has seen 49,633 deaths, including 3,588 in the region.

The increased immunity from having COVID-19 or getting vaccinated has reduced the number of serious cases requiring hospitalizations, which happen at a rate one-fifth that of a year ago, according to the state data.

Allyson Favuzza, a nurse practitioner and co-owner of Hometown Health Care of NEPA, in Covington Twp., said most infected patients who visit her office either have never been vaccinated or never received booster shots.

"It's certainly not gone," she said. "We're certainly still seeing it. Maybe not at the rates we were seeing in the past. But again, that's also hard to tell, because if people are home testing themselves, those numbers aren't being reported."

Home tests seem to help thwart the spread, Favuzza said. Before home testing, people with mild symptoms went out and spread the disease, but now they're likelier to seek treatment, she said. The drug, Paxlovid, if taken within five days of the onset of symptoms can quickly cure someone.

"We've seen this virus before, we know how to fight it and we're helping the immune system get on top of it before it gets out of control," she said.

Very few people are coming in for first COVID-19 vaccines now. Hollander said that happens two or three times a week only because a staff member asks a patient's vaccination status.

Favuzza said providers must now stay on top of patients, just as they do with flu shots.

"Primary care providers specifically or anyone on the frontlines that are dealing with people on a daily basis need to get that in their spiel," she said. "And if not (vaccinated), (then say) 'Let's get you one today and keep our protection and the community up and really protect the elderly, and those who maybe are unimmunized or can't be immunized.'"

Contact the writer: bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9147; @BorysBlogTT on Twitter.

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