ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Hospitalizations are rising rapidly in Central Florida, and experts say it’s due to climbing COVID-19 case counts and the highly contagious Delta variant.
What You Need To Know
- CDC data shows COVID-19 hospitalizations in Orange County were up 52% from July 1-11
- Experts say the vast majority of the people hospitalized with COVID-19 are unvaccinated
- Officials worry that the situation could get worse with the proliferation of COVID-19 variants
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows the steep rise started happening right around the Fourth of July holiday, and that from July 1-11, hospitalizations in Orange County rose 52%.
This is part of the reason why Jerlin Johnson got her vaccination Wednesday, and she hopes others will follow her lead.
“I’m almost 74, so I’m hoping to inspire other people to come, especially my momma,” she said. “I have a 94-year-old mom, so I hope that will inspire her to come.”
Alvina Chu, with the Florida Department of Health in Orange County, said people who are unvaccinated are likely to get infected.
The Delta variant is now making up a majority of new coronavirus cases across the United States.
Where those cases rise, so do hospitalizations, Chu said.
“As the virus is able to infect more people, thus you have, proportionally, more people who many become hospitalized, and proportionally more people who may have the most severe outcome, which is potentially death, if they’re unvaccinated,” said Chu.
Health experts hope vaccine rates pick up pace, especially since Orange County is currently considered a “high risk” for transmission by the CDC.
“This is why we are in this race to get this pandemic under control, to reduce the number of infections and the susceptible people that are available to the virus, so we don’t essentially encourage the creation of a mutation that can out compete the others,” said Chu.
Tracking hospitalizations has become more difficult as hospitals are no longer required to report their data to the state.
However, Spectrum News 13 did reach out to AdventHealth.
They told us as of July 8, 310 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 across their system in Central Florida.
