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‘Pretty dramatic’ COVID-19 spike sending unvaccinated Polk to hospitals
If you think COVID-19 is almost over, think again. There has been a spike in cases in Polk County which follows a national trend.
TAMPA, Florida – New cases of the coronavirus in Florida have nearly doubled over the past week, while the state’s positivity rate has also skyrocketed, topping 11% in the past seven days.
Florida now only releases coronavirus data once a week. The Department of Health stopped publishing daily coronavirus statistics in early June under the leadership of Governor Ron DeSantis.
“COVID-19 cases have declined significantly over the past year as we have a positivity rate of less than 5%, and our condition is returning to normal, with vaccines widely available throughout Florida,” he said. News Service of Florida press secretary Christina Pushaw at the time.
The weekly reports are published every Friday. According to the summary released on June 16, Florida had 45,603 new cases of the coronavirus for the week of July 9 to 15. This is almost double the total of 23,562 from the previous week and about triple the previous week, which was 15,998.
The positivity rate for new tests is also increasing. For the last week, it was 11.5%. The previous week it was 7.8%, compared to 5.2% and 3.8% in previous weeks.
The state also added 59 new deaths last week for a total of 38,388 since the start of the pandemic.
Source: Florida Department of Health
About 3,200 COVID patients are hospitalized in the state, a jump of 73% since June 14, when 1,845 were hospitalized. The number had been declining since mid-January when nearly 7,800 were hospitalized just at the start of the vaccination program.
Meanwhile, the number of vaccinations given each week has declined by nearly 80% statewide since April, even though less than 60% of the population aged 12 and older is fully vaccinated.
Florida saw 224,326 doses of the vaccine administered last week, the lowest in at least 10 weeks.
The state now has the fourth-highest per capita hospitalization rate in the United States, behind Nevada, Missouri and Arkansas, according to Jason Salemi, a University of South Florida epidemiologist who tracks the national epidemic for over a year.
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The spike in new cases appears to be the biggest increase since a bump in April and is poised to rival the much larger spike last winter.
At a new conference in Orlando, DeSantis blamed the new outbreak on the seasonal pattern of the disease.
“We knew it was going to be low in May and it was. And we knew that at the end of June and July it would go up, because that’s what happened last year,” DeSantis said. , who was vaccinated.
But Salemi said Florida has reported 20% of the nation’s new coronavirus cases in the past two weeks, even though it only represents 6.5% of the population. He and other epidemiologists and doctors interviewed attribute the spike to the state’s slowing vaccination rate, a decrease in mask wear and social distancing, and the delta variant.
“This is extremely concerning because we have already seen what this more transmissible delta variant can do in places like India and Indonesia with disproportionate access to vaccines,” said Salemi.
RELATED: COVID-19 Becomes ‘Unvaccinated Pandemic’, CDC Director Says
Dr Frederick Southwick, head of the infectious disease division at the University of Florida School of Medicine, said computer simulations show the delta strain will create “a marked increase in the number of cases over the next three months. “.
“The delta variant grows faster in human cells and can spread to others, especially in closed spaces, even with a mask,” he said. “The only effective way to be protected against the delta variant is to get vaccinated.”
The policy has an impact on vaccination rates, as some national conservative media figures and politicians have played down or shown hostility towards vaccination programs. The lowest rates in the state are in conservative rural areas of North Florida – in some counties, less than 30% of adults are vaccinated.
The positivity rates in these areas, however, were the highest in the state. Liberty County reported a rate of 35.4% for the past week; Baker County was over 30%, Bay and Bradford Counties over 25%.
PDF: View the full weekly status report
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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