As COVID-19 infections return to pre-omicron levels in Florida, the spread of the disease and its strain on hospitals remain worse in Florida than most states, new federal data shows.
State health officials are offering no answers on why or how to tackle this.
While 83% of all Americans live in places where COVID-19 poses a “low” threat to their hospitals, the same is true for just 67% of Floridians, data released Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates.
The CDC calculates COVID-19 case rates and hospitalizations in counties to determine if the disease poses a risk of “low,” “medium,” or “high” impact to their health-care systems.
COVID-19 charts:Latest data for Palm Beach County and Florida
About 30% of Floridians live in medium-impact areas, and about 2% live in 10 high-risk counties.
Counties in the “low” category report fewer than 10 COVID-19 hospitalizations and fewer than 200 cases for every 100,000 residents in the past seven days. And COVID-positive patients occupy less than 10% of hospital beds.
The low-risk counties run along Florida’s east coast, the southwest and most of the Panhandle. The “medium” counties run along the west coast, including the Tampa Bay area, and then northeast to Jacksonville. The 10 high-risk counties are clustered near Alachua County, home to the University of Florida, and bordering Georgia.
The CDC recommends that schools, businesses and other organizations in medium-level counties conduct testing on people exposed to the coronavirus. This measure, and others, would reduce strain on local hospitals.
When President Joe Biden announced a mandate last year that would require businesses with 100 or more employees to vaccinate their workers or test them, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other states sued. Ultimately, the Supreme Court struck down the rule.
In counties with a “high” level of COVID spread and hospitalization, the CDC recommends indoor masking. DeSantis has passed laws and orders stripping local governments of powers to enforce mask requirements.
Some locales have dropped mask requirements. Palm Beach County on Feb. 14 ended its mask requirements for visitors and employees at county-run buildings. The school district ended theirs for staff and visitors Jan. 24.
More:The unknown unknowns spell out bad news for Florida’s COVID-19 policies | Frank Cerabino
When a Palm Beach Post reporter reached out to the Florida Health Department to ask how it would reduce the spread of COVID and hospitalizations, press secretary Jeremy Redfern accused the reporter of spreading “conspiracy theories,” and said, “It’s not the responsibility of the Florida Department of Health to explain CDC methodology.”
The CDC adopted the classification system last month, which focuses on hospitalizations. The previous county rating system relied only on infection rates. The coronavirus’ omicron variant has proven more infectious, but less deadly, in part because most people have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
Some Florida counties lack hospitals. To estimate COVID’s risk to the health-care system in those places, the CDC combines those counties with ones that have them in “Health Service Areas,” and assigns them all the same hospitalization rate.
“The health service regions they are using to make regional groupings, while imperfect, make a great deal of sense,” University of South Florida epidemiologist Dr. Jason Salemi said Friday. “That’s what you want, the region within which most residents both live and will seek care.”
By the CDC’s measure, other large states fare better than Florida.
In California, 92% of residents live in places where COVID poses a low level of strain on hospitals, the CDC reports. Rates are also higher in Texas (78%) and New York (94%). Florida, which is popular among retirees, ranks below states with similar age demographics, such as Pennsylvania (88%) and Maine (74%).
More:COVID data: Omicron infection wave all but over in Florida; booster shots hit new low
Medical staff across Florida were tending to 1,438 COVID-positive patients Friday, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department reported. That’s about one-tenth the amount during the height of the omicron wave in mid-January, but still 45% higher than Dec. 1.
COVID-positive patients occupied 55% fewer beds nationwide Friday compared to Dec. 1.
Like the rest of the nation, Florida is seeing the end of the omicron-fueled COVID-19 wave of infections. The state logged 10,211 new infections in the past week, the health department reported Friday. That’s on par with the weekly caseloads recorded in November.
Florida has documented 5,824,728 infections since the start of the pandemic. The actual count is higher because many cases go unreported. The state’s COVID death toll increased by 863 in the past seven days. Deaths can take weeks to make their way into official statistics.
The deadly respiratory illness has claimed the lives of at least 71,860 Floridians. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 vaccines have reached few additional Floridians in the past week. The number of residents statewide with at least one shot in their arms grew by just 12,128 in the past seven days, the lowest weekly sum on record.
Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, a DeSantis appointee, said Monday that healthy kids should not get the COVID vaccine.
Just 22% of Floridian children ages 5 to 11 have gotten at least one shot. Children younger than age 18 comprise a growing share of COVID-positive hospital patients statewide.
A daily average of 2.3% of patients since Dec. 1 have been pediatric. Before that, kids rarely made up more than 2% of patients.
A total of 15,430,167 Floridians have gotten at least one shot, including 5,078,229 with boosters.
Chris Persaud is The Palm Beach Post’s data reporter. Email him at cpersaud@pbpost.com or on Twitter at @chrismpersaud.
