ORLANDO, Fla. — At the height of the coronavirus pandemic, hospitals across Florida were being closely monitored for bed availability.
What You Need To Know
- COVID-19 hospitalizations down in Florida
- Dr. Antonio Crespo said he noticed the shift in conjunction with the vaccine rollout
- But doctors are seeing younger patients being hospitalized
On average, 8,000 people a day in the state were in the hospital being treated for COVID-19 in January. This summer that number is down about 75%. On average, across the state there are less than 2,000 coronavirus patients a day.
This time a year ago, during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, infectious disease Dr. Antonio Crespo of Orlando Health remembers a very different picture.
“Hard to believe what we were seeing at that point,” Crespo said.
His hospital, on average, treats 100 coronavirus patients a day, many of whom didn’t want to check in, thinking they would fight the virus on their own.
“Patients sometimes didn’t want to come to the hospital,” Crespo said. “They knew they were going to be admitted and be alone and away from the families, and they had fear.”
A little over one year later, the number of hospitalizations for COVID-19 is down statewide by nearly 75%.
“We have dropped down below 2,000 COVID hospitalizations,” said Mary Mayhew, president of the Florida Hospital Association. “We continue to see a decline, fewer cases of COVID being diagnosed.”
Crespo said he started to notice the shift in hospitalizations decrease in conjunction with the vaccine rollout at the beginning of the year as well.
“We started to see a slow decline,” he said. “I would say over the last couple of months that declines been steady, almost daily.”
With #coronavirus patient hospitalizations in Florida down, I asked Dr. Antonio Crespo, Infectious Diseases Physician and Medical Director, @orlandohealth Medical Group Infectious Disease who is the current common #COVID patient they are seeing in the hospital? @MyNews13 pic.twitter.com/Bu6TEPlXk0
— Spectrum News Asher Wildman (@AsherWildman13) June 23, 2021
Another shift the state sees is who is requiring a hospitalization due to the virus.
“We have seen — as our older population has become vaccinated, we have seen a younger demographic requiring hospitalizations,” Mayhew said.
The pandemic is not over yet, and until herd immunity is reached, Crespo continues to do all he can to help his patients one day at a time.
“You are in the moment, you have to do it,” he said.
So far in Florida nearly 21 million doses of a vaccine have now been administered, and about 9.5 million people have been fully vaccinated.