The Sarasota area has been seeing a slight increase in COVID-19 cases this winter, according to a representative of the Florida Department of Health’s Sarasota County office.
The Florida health department reported 450 COVID-19 cases in Sarasota County for the week ending last Thursday, Jan. 5, compared with 341 cases in the county for the week ending Thursday, Dec. 15. (FDOH releases COVID-19 reports on a biweekly basis, but it skipped a week because of the holidays.)
The reports released in October, November and early December had weekly case numbers in the 200s or low 300s.
These reports don’t account for all coronavirus cases because many people take at-home tests and some people with mild symptoms don’t get tested. But the numbers give health officials “a good picture” of what’s going on with COVID-19, said Michael Drennon, the disease intervention services program manager for the FDOH’s Sarasota County office.
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Drennon estimated that the slight increase in cases began just before Thanksgiving. The elevated case numbers haven’t come close to those of last winter, though. A year ago, the state health department reported 5,010 COVID-19 cases in Sarasota County for the week ending Jan. 6, 2022.
Manatee County has also been seeing an increase in coronavirus cases. FDOH reported 455 cases in the county during the week ending last Thursday, compared to 306 during the week ending Dec. 15.
Sarasota Memorial Hospital’s Sarasota and Venice campuses had a total of 77 COVID-19 patients as of Monday morning, including five in the intensive care unit. Though the hospital system has more COVID patients than a month ago (there were 52 patients on Dec. 9), it doesn’t have as many as during last winter’s surge.
Coronavirus cases are also on the rise at the state level. During the week ending last Thursday, the state had a reported 31,633 cases, compared to 23,939 reported cases the previous week. The most recent report also said 84,176 residents had died of COVID-19 in Florida as of Thursday, an increase from 83,201 previously reported in December.
COVID-19, flu and RSV
Drennon said health officials are monitoring a couple different respiratory illnesses this winter, including flu, COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). He said that there was an uptick in flu cases from October to December.
Drennon noted that as the new year progresses, more snowbirds and visitors will come into the Sarasota area.
“As those states may have higher flu rates or COVID rates, we may start to see a local impact over the next couple of weeks,” he said.
Drennon said that when you are ill with respiratory symptoms, you should avoid contact with other people, which will help limit the spread of pathogens. He also recommends monitoring the severity of your illness. If you are having trouble breathing or are having other severe symptoms, he said that you should seek medical attention.
He also encourages individuals to get vaccinated against coronavirus and the flu, practice good hand hygiene and take other health precautions.
Sarasota and Manatee counties are both at a “medium” COVID-19 community level, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At the “medium” level, the CDC recommends that those at high risk of getting very sick wear a high-quality mask or respirator in indoor public spaces. If you have household or social contact with someone at high risk of getting very sick, the CDC recommends that you consider self-testing to detect infection before contact and consider wearing a high-quality mask when indoors with the individual.
