As the BA.5 strain of COVID-19’s omicron variant dominates the virus in Florida, hospital admissions are rising again, mostly triggered by people 60 and older.
On Friday, more than 4,300 people with COVID occupied beds in Florida’s hospitals, an 8% weekly increase and the highest number since mid-February.
While nearly all states are seeing higher admissions, Florida’s COVID patients are mostly seniors. In particular, the state ranks as worst in the country for the number of infected patients over 80 years old, according to an analysis by Jason Salemi, a University of South Florida epidemiologist who operates a COVID tracking dashboard.
The rising hospitalizations related to COVID are due, in part, to the sheer number of vulnerable, newly infected people. More than 11,000 people a day in Florida are reporting newly confirmed infections and — with many doing self-tests — the actual number is certainly much higher. The majority of new cases are Floridians 65 years and older, Florida health officials reported Friday.
Epidemiologists say BA.5 is triggering another wave and may be the worst strain yet, mostly because is better at evading prior immunity than previous strains and increasing rapidly.
So far, there is no evidence that the newly circulating omicron subvariant, causes more severe disease. Only 412 people in the state with COVID are in intensive care units, representing 7% of beds.
With BA.5 quickly spreads across the U.S., forecasting models show that nearly 40 states and territories — including Florida — are projected to see increases in new hospitalizations over the next two weeks.
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But Dr. Carla McWilliams, an infectious disease doctor at Cleveland Clinic Florida said hospitalization numbers are deceiving.
“The vast majority of patients positive for COVID in our hospitals are here for alternative diagnoses,” she said. “You need to understand that when you are looking at when you see hospitalizations going up. What you are really looking at are markers of what’s happening in the community. There are a lot more cases but we are not seeing that correlating to severe COVID-related hospitalizations.”
Dr. Roby Abraham, an orthopedic surgery specialist in Plantation who operates at HCA Florida Westside Hospital, said he is seeing patients scheduled for procedures who are admitted and test positive, without ever displaying COVID symptoms. “We confirm the diagnosis and reschedule for six weeks out.”
Statewide, Florida does not distinguish in its data between those patients admitted because of COVID or those admitted for other reasons but test positive later in the hospital.
Mary Mayhew, president and CEO of the Florida Hospital Association, said while COVID admissions are increasing in Florida hospitals, they are not doing so at the same rate as during the delta or initial omicron waves. However, Mayhew said, hospitals are starting to experience disruption to patient care as their staff call in sick with COVID because of higher levels of community transmission.
Mayhew said hospitals, fortunately, haven’t seen a large influx of patients requiring intensive care treatment with this most recent surge, but she acknowledges there is growing concern that that may change as the virus spreads among the most vulnerable populations.
“Nationally and here in Florida, everyone is very focused on tracking hospitalization numbers because it’s difficult to draw conclusions from the case rate. We will be monitoring closely not just hospitalizations but the percentage in the ICU being treated for COVID,” she said.
On Friday, the Florida Department of Health reported the statewide positivity rate is 21.2%, which is higher than it was during any other surge except the initial omicron surge earlier this year. The state also reported 78,245 new cases for the week ending July 14 and 771 new COVID deaths over the last two weeks.
Of Florida’s 22 million people, the state reports 72% of those six months or older now have had at least one dose of a COVID vaccine.
Here are the updated key coronavirus statistics for Florida:
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