ICU beds are filling up

Throughout the pandemic, one of the main predictors of COVID deaths has been the number of patients with the disease in intensive-care units.

In late November, when omicron first made its way into the country, only about

4% of ICU beds in Florida were filled with COVID patients, the lowest in many months.

And now, while the number of patients hospitalized for COVID in Florida has jumped 150% in the four weeks, ICU beds occupied with COVID patients increased 125%. The percentage of ICU beds filled by COVID patients in Florida’s intensive-care units is up to

17%.

At Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami-Dade, Dr. Lilly Lee, chief of emergency medicine, says most of the health system’s COVID patients are not in the ICU. “With delta so many were on high-flow oxygen or required intubation. We rarely see that need at all now.”

But Lee said she can’t be sure the COVID death rate will remain at its low levels. “Some patients do still get very sick with this variant, especially if they are unvaccinated or have no immune response. They still end up on ventilators, but we have a high vaccination rate in the county and we are not dealing with delta.”

In recent months, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has promoted “early treatment saves lives,” encouraging Floridians to get monoclonal antibodies when testing positive to prevent severe disease, especially if someone is high risk.

“There is no doubt that many lives have been saved as a result of making these treatments widely available,” the governor said during a news briefing earlier this week.

The Department of Health reports Florida has given out 130,000 treatments since Aug. 12. However, evidence suggests these same treatments are losing their effectiveness in the fight against the mutating virus and likely will not work as well to lessen the effect of the disease during the new wave.

If Florida’s low death rate stems from the preponderance of treatment, a reporting backlog, or the lack of severity in the age group most infected, the next few weeks should offer some insight into how the state fares, COVID trackers say.

On Friday, Florida broke its single-day record with 76,887 new COVID cases.

However, more than a third of Florida’s cases are people ages 20 to 29.

“We could end up with a situation where we have a ton of cases, a lot of people hospitalized and a much better chance of keeping people alive,” Salemi said. “If omicron is less severe, it’s less likely to kill the younger people who are getting infected in Florida in a higher proportion.”