Hospital bed usage over 80% in Orange, Seminole

Officials say no cause for concern yet, but monitoring situation

More than 80% of general and ICU beds were in use Sunday at Orange and Seminole county hospitals, and health officials say that even though the number of hospitalized coronavirus patients are increasing, so are the elective surgeries and emergency procedures not related to COVID-19.

Local officials said that they’re not yet concerned, although they’re watching the numbers closely. They said local hospitals continue to have enough capacity to handle any potential COVID-19 surge.

On Sunday, the state reported 2,016 new cases, a day after reporting the highest number of cases in a single day with 2,581.

Saturday was the first time since the outbreak began that more than 2,000 new cases were reported in a single day. The death toll stands at 2,931. Sunday also marked the 11th time in the past 12 days that the state saw more than 1,000 daily cases.

At Orlando Health, the number of COVID-19 patients has been increasing in recent weeks, from a low of five patients on May 22 to the low 40s on Sunday, but officials say that’s been expected as a result of reopening activities.

“We’re hovering around 40 patients in the hospital with COVID. So definitely indications of more community spread, which is what we had expected, but certainly not to the point that it’s stressed the healthcare system,” said Dr. George Ralls, chief quality officer for Orlando Health in an interview on Sunday.

Ralls said that the health sys

tem is closely watching the numbers but for now there’s no cause for alarm as hospitals continue to have enough capacity to handle a potential surge of COVID-19 patients.

AdventHealth officials said last week that they had experienced a “slight uptick” in the number of patients, but no alarming numbers so far. Adventhealth, which could not be reached for comment Sunday, is not sharing its current COVID-19 hospitalization numbers.

In an email on Sunday, Dr. Raul Pino, Orange’s state health officer, said that there has been a “small increase” in hospitalizations in Orange County.

“It is related to the increase in [COVID-19] cases,” he said, adding that a small portion of the increase could be due to the use of Remdesivir to treat COVID-19 that requires some patients to stay a few days longer.

Remdesivir is an antiviral medication used to treat Ebola, which has shown promise in treating hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Despite daily highs and lows, overall percentage of available hospital beds has remained relatively steady in the region, at least for now, according to an analysis of state data.

Orange County’s overall general hospital-bed availability was at at 15% Sunday, compared with 18% on June 1.

Lake County’s rate has held steady at around 23% during that time period, while Osceola County’s is at about 28%, and Seminole County at about 24%.

In Lake County, the ICU bed availability has remained relatively steady since June 1 at about 20%, while Osceola County has held steady at about 30%.

ICU-bed availability has shown a more noticeable decline in some counties.

In Orange County, the percentage of available ICU beds in Orange and Seminole counties have dropped from about 30% on June 1 to 17% on June 14, but local officials attribute some of it to increase in the number of surgeries as things return to normal coupled with more severe cases resulting from delays in care.

“I worked in the ER on Friday night and we’re still seeing patients coming in who had issues related to things they had put off for weeks for months,” Ralls said.

Meanwhile, the medical community has gained a better understanding of how to treat COVID-19 infection and has more tools to combat the disease, such as convelescent plasma therapy and drugs like Remdesivir. Doctors are also less likely to use ventilators today than they were at the beginning of the pandemic.

“Our ICU ventilator numbers are really not significantly higher [for COVID-19] patients,” Ralls said. “In fact, almost half of our ICU beds are available right now at ORMC.

Florida is among several states to report an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in recent days. State and local officials say the majority of the positive results are among younger people, who are less likely to be severely ill from the infection.

“These are the people who are in the low-risk groups,” said Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday when asked about the increasing number of positive results, especially in age groups of 20 to 45. Some who test positive have shown no signs of having the disease, he said.

The number of COVID-19 deaths in Central Florida have been steadily dropping.

In Central Florida, Lake County reported no deaths between May 20 and June 12, when it reported one case.

Orange County’s last reported death was on June 5, Osceola on May 29 and Seminole on June 3.

Central Florida had 8,396 cases Sunday, an increase of 353 over Saturday.

Orange and Seminole County health officials issued dire warnings on Thursday, telling residents that the novel coronavirus is coming back and too many people aren’t taking precautions.

Dr. Todd Husty, Seminole County’s medical director, said the virus “is coming back, and it absolutely has the possibility of coming back with a vengeance. This is a big deal, and it’s getting worse. We were so close to zero [cases]. We were that close. And then we started opening up… This damn thing is opportunistic.”