Hospitals admitting more patients

Officials fear COVID-19 variants could be cause of growing numbers

Florida’s hospitals are filling up again with COVID-19 patients, and doctors fear coronavirus variants could be behind the uptick.

The number of patients hospitalized with the disease has been heading upward all month, even with a fourth of Floridians fully vaccinated and 2 million who already had COVID.

The uptick comes as five “variants of concern” are spreading in Florida, with 5,177 cases now identified. Broward County has the most cases of variants in the state, more than 1,200. It also has the largest number of patients who have been hospitalized with the variant — 35 out of the state’s 126.

Because less than one-half of 1% of cases are studied for mutations, the variants are assumed to be circulating at a much greater volume. But one trend already is clear: While most cases of the identified variants are in people between ages 25 and 44, most hospitalizations for those with variants are people 55 and older.

For a few weeks in March, South Florida hospital workers took a breath and thought the state was on the right track. But in April, the situation shifted again. As of Friday morning, about 3,500 people were hospitalized for COVID in Florida, a 16% increase from April 1. MiamiDade, Broward and Palm Beach Counties lead the state in COVID hospitalizations, reporting a 12%

increase from April 1.

Hospital leaders say a combination of reasons could be driving new COVID admissions, including the coronavirus variants.

Dr. Thomas Macaluso, Memorial Healthcare System’s chief medical officer, which operates five hospitals in South Broward, said because some variants are more contagious, and not enough young people are vaccinated, he sees the uptick in hospitalizations continuing.

“We are preparing for this to go on for a while,” he said. “We just re-opened an ICU that we had closed.”

Memorial has 260 patients with a primary diagnosis of COVID in its hospitals, not nearly as many as during the winter peak in January, but more than the roughly 200 it had just a month ago.

“Our COVID patient census has never dropped to the point where we could take a breath,” Macaluso said.

Broward Health has seen a recent uptick in patients admitted into its COVID wards, a younger group than in 2020. They arrive mostly with fever, cough and shortness of breath. Dr. Joshua D. Lenchus, chief medical officer of Broward Health Medical Center, said the more contagious variants could be behind increasing admissions as they spread among the 25- to 44-year-olds — the group least likely to be vaccinated and most likely to become infected.

“It’s too early to tell whether variants lead to a greater severity of illness,” he said.

Lenchus said because COVID patients now are younger and better at fighting the disease, fewer require intensive care than the seniors who dominated the early surges.

“That is undoubtedly related to the fact that we’ve done an amazing job vaccinating people over 65,” he said.

In late December, when only a fraction of Floridians were vaccinated, 22% of ICU beds were occupied by COVID patients at Florida hospitals. As of this April 20, 12% of ICU beds were occupied by COVID patients, according to the most recent White House coronavirus report.

Dr. Zoran Bursac tracks COVID hospitalizations in South Florida as a biostatistician at Florida International University. Bursac said if variants continue to spread quickly among young adults, hospitals will be dealing with COVID for at least the rest of the year.

“By the sheer number of cases, even though they are younger, they are going to result in some hospitalizations, and some severe cases will land in the ICU and need ventilation,” he said.

Lenchus said how long his COVID ward at Broward Health remains operating will depend on whether enough younger Floridians get vaccinated.

“The faster we get them vaccinated, the faster we can diminish the virus’ ability to replicate and mutate, and we can be less concerned about other variants,” he said.