High-wind forecast prompts closures
Orange Convention Center among local testing sites temporarily shut down as storm approaches Florida
All state-run COVID-19 testing sites, including the operation at the Orange County Convention Center, will not re-open Friday because of Tropical Storm Isaias, which is whipping Caribbean islands with 60 mph winds and likely headed toward Florida.
The precautionary closures will halt the flow of health data as Central Florida infection rates were headed downward. But it could also present a silver lining: helping speed up test results, which have in some instances taken weeks to produce.
“It could give the labs a chance to catch up,” said Dr. Raul Pino, the local state health officer.
TROPICAL STORM ISAIAS
Even with the likelihood of fewer tests being taken, Pino suspects positivity rates could increase next week. He suspects people who feel sick could make up a larger portion of the people who go to get tested than in a normal week. Testing in clinical settings and by private providers will continue.
Pino also suspects the county to see high death counts over the next few days since the measure typically lags about two weeks behind new hospitalizations. Though by the middle of next week, the rate could begin to slow, matching the already-seen decrease in hospitalizations recently.
Pino said typically about half of the people suffering from COVID-19 who need an ICU bed will die. Currently, the county has 89 ICU beds occupied.
His office is also monitoring outbreaks in several assisted-living facilities throughout the county.
Conway Lakes Health & Rehabilitation, off Curry Ford Road, has 19 staffers and 24 patients positive for the virus. Five total people have been hospitalized and two patients have died, Pino said.
At Orlando Health and Rehab, 56 staff members have tested positive, but none have needed hospitalization. Eighty-four patients tested positive; none have needed