A reported increase in hospitalizations in facilities in central Florida might not have much to do with coronavirus cases, officials said this week.
“We’re seeing the volumes come back to where we typically see them. It’s not COVID patients creating any kind of capacity constraints. We’re seeing heart disease, lung disease. All of these things we’re typically used to seeing,” said Orlando Health’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. George Ralls.
As part of statewide lockdown measures, most governors banned elective procedures in an attempt to keep hospital beds free for an expected wave of coronavirus patients.
“The hospital systems are doing elective surgeries and treating COVID patients at the exact same time. So because of that, the percentage is going to be down a little bit,” said Alan Harris, Seminole County’s emergency manager, according to Fox 35 in Orlando.
As of this week, only 24% of beds in hospitals in Brevard, Flagler, Lake, Marion, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Sumter, and Volusia counties are open, the station reported, and 28% of intensive care unit beds are open.
Dr. Jason Littleton, a physician in Orlando, said capacity levels like the ones the area is seeing “might just be what the new normal is, in regards to the numbers, as we wait and see how everything balances out.”
Several states and counties around the nation have used new hospitalization and infection rates as barometers for how and when to lift stay-at-home orders or implement phased reopening procedures.
Several states have seen an increase in positive cases, which most state health officials attribute to increased testing capacity. The state of Florida reported an additional 2,500 coronavirus cases over the weekend.
More than 2 million people in the United States have tested positive for the coronavirus since the pandemic began in late January, and nearly 117,000 people have died from the disease.
