COVID hospitalizations, deaths on the rise in latest Florida BA.5 surge
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While Florida’s official COVID-19 caseload has remained flat for more than a month, every other major indicator shows the latest wave of the disease is getting worse.
As the number of new statewide weekly infections logged each week remains around the same level as late May, hospitalizations and deaths continue to rise, as do the share of coronavirus tests with positive results and the concentration of the pathogen found in sewage.
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Health officials have documented an average of 10,000 new infections daily in Florida since May 28, data released Friday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show.
But medical staff statewide tended to more than 4,200 COVID-positive patients this week, the most since Feb. 16, according to figures Friday from the U.S. Health and Human Services Department.
Meanwhile, the positivity rate for PCR tests statewide this past week is 24%, the highest since late January, CDC data shows.
Florida’s CDC-reported death toll climbed by 360 people since the state Health Department’s last biweekly COVID report published July 1.
The state has counted more than 300 new fatalities weekly since late June. That number is lower than during the height of the virus’ omicron and delta variant waves, when the death toll spiked by more than 1,000 weekly.
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Water treatment plants in Pinellas and Seminole counties recorded the most viral particles in sewage samples this past week since they started getting them tested in late January, according to Boston-based Biobot Analytics, a laboratory that collects wastewater from agencies across the nation.
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Sewage study: Palm Beach County's official COVID case counts are dropping, but sewage reveals a surge
A wastewater facility in Palm Beach County on Monday recorded its third-highest number of viral particles in sewage samples.
Biobot found a 40% drop in coronavirus particles from Hillsborough County compared with the week before, when the lab recorded the highest level of particles in the county’s wastewater since it started collecting it in late January.
Concentrations of the pathogen’s genetic material in Miami-Dade County are down about 16% since the latest peak June 15.
How official case counts miss number of COVID infections
With the rise in at-home COVID testing, fewer people are opting for PCR or antigen tests, administered by health professionals, whose test results are the only ones that government agencies collect. The state will not collect results of at-home tests from residents reporting them. This has led to official case counts missing an untold number of infections.
Health officials have collected an average of 40,000 tests daily this month across Florida. That’s about the same level as April — after the original omicron wave — and in early June 2020.
The omicron subvariant BA.5 is fueling the latest COVID surge statewide and nationwide. It has caused just under 80% of cases nationwide, a CDC analysis of a sample of tests shows.
The BA.5 mutation, also called the centaurus variant, can more easily pierce the defenses of vaccinated people than the original omicron strain. But it still infects and kills unvaccinated people more often.
Vaccinated people, including those with boosters, report having sore throats, nasal congestion, aches in their joints, cough, fatigue and a loss of appetite or upset stomach.
Unvaccinated people catching virus 4 times more often
Unvaccinated people caught the virus at least four times more often than boosted people as of mid-June, the latest CDC data collected from health officials across the nation indicate. And they were more than seven times as likely to die, late May data shows.
Vaccination figures statewide have barely budged in months. About 28% of Floridians have gotten boosters, CDC data shows, and about 80% have gotten at least one shot.
The CDC counts more than 17.2 million shots injected into Florida residents’ arms, a tally 1.3 million higher than what state health officials said in their July 15 report. The CDC counts federal personnel and others in Florida while state health officials don’t.
COVID has killed at least 77,022 Floridians. The airborne virus has infected more than 6.7 million since the start of the pandemic, almost one-third of the state population.
Chris Persaud is The Palm Beach Post's data reporter. Email him at cpersaud@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida: COVID hospitalizations, deaths up; BA.5 omicron variant surge
