AdventHealth Returns To ‘Yellow Status’ Due To Rise In Cases

ORLANDO, Florida – AdventHealth executives have reverted the central Florida healthcare chain to ‘yellow status’, taking new precautionary measures amid rising COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations.

Hospitals have been under green status, or operating as usual, for a few months as vaccinations increase, but on Thursday AdventHealth executives announced they were reverting to yellow status.

“Given the increase we have seen and the potential for capacity constraints in the future, we will be proactively moving to yellow status,” said AdventHealth Chief Medical Officer Dr Neil Finkler.

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This status means that AdventHealth hospitals will postpone patient planning for new elective surgeries. Employees and visitors will once again be required to wear masks in non-clinical settings.

The change also involves restricting the number of visitors to health facilities. Patients without COVID are allowed two visitors at a time, and patients with COVID are only allowed one visitor per day.

Locations in Hardee, Highlands, Hillsborough, Marion, Pasco and Pinellas counties have no changes in their elective procedures or visitor policies, according to a statement.

Officials said the decision was due to an increase in the number of cases and hospitalizations due to the highly contagious delta variant.

As of Thursday, 720 patients were hospitalized at AdventHealth hospitals in central Florida with coronavirus. At the height of the pandemic in January, the hospital chain saw 900 patients. Officials said this was the fastest rate of increase in patients they had seen throughout the pandemic. About 95% of all hospitalizations due to the virus are unvaccinated people.

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The Florida Department of Health and the State Agency for Healthcare Administration stopped reporting daily hospitalizations and capacity related to COVID-19 in early June as cases declined, however, the state is still required to report some of this data to federal health agencies. The graph below shows hospitalizations due to the Florida virus.

“Vaccinees who get sick have much less severe symptoms,” Finkler said. “We know they don’t end up in the hospital, for the most part, but even their symptoms seem to be shorter and less severe.”

There has been an increase in breakthrough cases among those fully vaccinated, but most people who test positive have mild symptoms.

“As the number increases in the community and there is a higher rate of transmission in our community, it is best that we all wear masks because even if we are vaccinated there can still be revolutionary cases and there is always the possibility of transmission, ”said Centra Care Chief Medical Officer Dr Tim Hendrix.

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Hendrix said Centra Care clinics are reporting a 25% positivity rate for COVID-19 tests. A month ago, the rate was 7%.

Now Hendrix said about one in four who come to Centra Care with symptoms test positive, which is a lot more than a month ago, when it was 7%.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the rate should stay between 5% and 10% for two weeks to prove that a community has a grip on the virus and is curbing infections.

“It only took us less than a month to get to a similar point which is even higher than what we were seeing during the holidays,” said Hendrix.

The hospital chain remains ready to convert hospital beds to intensive care beds if necessary, but for now, it is not necessary.

AdventHealth healthcare experts continue to encourage all people over 12 to get vaccinated.

The increase in hospitalizations related to COVID-19 is a trend happening nationwide and here in Central Florida. Brevard and Volusia County officials appealed to their communities this week