COVID in Palm Beach County now bigger than last winter: What we know
This winter's COVID-19 surge is now bigger than last winter's, the latest Palm Beach County sewage readings show, but more people are getting vaccinated.
Sewage tests found more coronavirus genetic fragments the week of Jan. 8 than a year ago in the Jupiter-area wastewater treated by the Loxahatchee River District. However, after months of declining vaccinations, immunizations started picking up during the final week of December, the latest state health data shows.
The national WastewaterSCAN initiative found 208 coronavirus particles per milligram of district sewage on Monday, Jan. 8 compared with 145 particles per milligram on Jan. 9, 2023. The current viral levels in north county sewage are more than seven times higher than on Dec. 22, the last time before Christmas that WastewaterSCAN tested district sewage.
COVID postive tests in Palm Beach County more than 3 times higher than last reading
The Florida Department of Health recorded 1,044 positive COVID tests countywide during the week ending Dec. 29, more than three times higher than four weeks prior, its latest reports show.
Case counts are spiking statewide too. Health officials documented 13,741 COVID cases during the week ending Dec. 29, more than double the amount recorded four weeks prior.
It is impossible to compare case counts now to 12 months ago because far more people use at-home tests, which don't enter official statistics. Sewage tests serve as better measures because wastewater has coronavirus fragments shed by those it infects.
As more evidence emerges that the latest COVID vaccines are effective during the latest surge of the disease, more people in Palm Beach County and across Florida are getting their shots. State health officials counted 2,349 people countywide and 32,272 statewide who got immunized during the week ending Dec. 29, reversing a decline that began in late September.
The latest COVID vaccine is expected to protect against the latest dominant viral variant, JN.1, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in December. Blood analysis showed that JN.1. was "neutralized" in people who got the latest shots, the World Health Organization reported in December.
How deadly is the latest COVID wave in Palm Beach County?
While cases surge, the current wave is less severe so far than last winter's. Florida's hospitals cared for 1,744 COVID-positive patients during the week ending Dec. 30, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported Monday. That's more than double four weeks prior, but about 1,200 fewer than the final week of 2022.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said in early 2022 that his administration would report how many COVID-positive patients came to the hospital with COVID to differentiate them from those who tested positive while there. That has yet to happen.
COVID has proved far less deadly in Palm Beach County and Florida too.
State health officials counted 23 COVID deaths in Palm Beach County from Dec. 1-29, down from 82 in December 2022.
Statewide, COVID killed 362 people Dec. 1-29 compared with 1,059 in December 2022.
Chris Persaud is The Palm Beach Post's data reporter. Send tips to cpersaud@pbpost.com
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: COVID-19 cases in Palm Beach County higher than last winter
