COVID-19 patients rise, tests dwindle

CDC: Florida has highest hospitalization rate in nation

Though state leaders continue to downplay the virus’s risks, Florida currently has the highest COVID-19 hospitalization rate in the U.S., and tests to check for infections are getting scarce.

According to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, 12 per 100,000 Florida residents are hospitalized with the virus. This is the 11th week in a row that the state’s COVID-19 hospitalizations have increased.

Orange, Seminole, Volusia, Lake, Flagler and Sumter counties saw a total of 301 COVID-19 hospital admissions for the week ending on Sept. 2, according to the latest CDC data. That’s an 18% decrease from a week before but a 41% increase from a month ago. Osceola County, reported separately, saw 59 admissions, an increase of over 30% from a week prior.

The increase in hospitalizations comes following a steady rise in SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations in wastewater over the past several months, according to CDC data. Wastewater and hospitalizations are the main metrics by which CDC measures the virus’s impact now that the department no longer tracks cases. The percentage of all deaths due to COVID-19 has also gone up since May.

Though the rise is a cause for concern, it’s not a cause for panic, according to Jason Salemi, a University of South Florida associate professor of epidemiology who has tracked COVID-19 since its beginning.

“It’s concerning that all of these metrics are headed in the wrong direction. But it’s also important to say that we’re nowhere near the worst of the pandemic, and we’re not even where we were last year,” Salemi said.

COVID-19 cases don’t generally increase this time of year, although the virus also hasn’t yet fallen into a perfectly predictable seasonal pattern, Salemi said.

He attributes the current wave to waning immunity and new variants, echoing other infectious disease experts.

The most recent increase in hospitalizations weekover-week has been smaller than in recent weeks past, Salemi added.

“I’m hoping that means that what’s going to happen is that we’re going to see a plateauing and a decrease, but of course, that remains to be seen,” Salemi said.

There are other signs that this is not a cause for alarm locally. Not all wastewater sampling facilities are recording an increase. Altamonte Springs and Casselberry’s sewer service areas have not seen a recent spike, said Altamonte Springs City Manager Frank Martz. In addition, though the majority of Florida counties are now dubbed “medium” risk based on hospitalization levels, Central Florida’s risk, by CDC standards, is still low.

Certain populations such as the immunocompromised and the elderly are at highest risk from the relatively modest spread. About three out of every 100 people 65 and older who get COVID die, according to Florida Department of Health data.

Experts will continue to watch COVID-19 carefully over the next few months. Seasonal viruses like RSV and the flu are expected to increase nationwide, potentially leaving people’s immune systems more vulnerable to COVID-19 infection.

This winter is also a trial of sorts.

On Tuesday, the CDC gave the green light to a new COVID-19 booster shot targeted toward the XBB.1.5 omicron subvariant, meaning they will be available soon.

But this will be the first rollout not offered for free by the federal government, leaving people without health insurance potentially having to pay out of pocket. Pfizer and Moderna told NBC News they are pricing each dose at over $100.

Last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis and state Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo critiqued the coming boosters, manufactured by Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax.

Ladapo incorrectly claimed during a news conference that the coming booster had “no clinical trial done in human beings showing that it benefits people.”

In contrast, human clinical trials indicate that Moderna’s booster, at least, is effective and expected to work against the gamut of currently circulating variants, all of which are very similar to the XBB.1.5 omicron subvariant that these shots are designed to target.

Free COVID-19 tests, too, went away when the U.S. public emergency expired in May. Tests can cost about $8 to more than $20. The price hasn’t stopped them from flying off the shelves, said Orlando CVS Pharmacy Manager Maxine Wilkerson.

“I have seen an increase, to the point where now we keep the COVID tests at our registers,” Wilkerson said. “The patients are still buying the tests, and they’re keeping them in their medicine cabinet, similar to how you would have Tylenol on hand in case you need it.”

It’s important not to throw out old tests without checking the expiration date, however, says the FDA.

Many manufacturers realized the tests were good for far longer than they estimated, and most tests’ expiration dates on the over-the-counter home test box have been extended by several months. The FDA keeps a list of updated expiration dates on its website.