Florida COVID numbers, hospitalizations rising again

C. A. Bridges, Fort Myers News-Press
·5 min read

Welcome to today's edition of the Florida Coronavirus Watch Newsletter.

As COVID cases and, consequently, COVID-related news dwindle, we have reduced the frequency of our Coronavirus Watch Newsletter to twice weekly. You can expect the newsletter in your inbox Mondays and Thursdays — or as urgent news dictates. Thank you for reading.

Florida COVID-19 data

Unlike most states which report coronavirus data directly to the public multiple times a week or daily, Florida has reduced its reporting of COVID-19 cases and deaths to every two weeks but only includes the previous week's numbers, making comparisons and statistics more difficult. State reports include only Florida residents and not visitors for cases and deaths, but do include visitors for vaccination numbers.

Subtracting the state's April 8 report from the current one, we get:

  • New COVID-19 cases in the previous two weeks: 36,371

  • Total COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began: 5,899,188 (5,942,723 per Johns Hopkins)

  • New COVID-19 deaths in the previous two weeks: 292

  • Total COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic began: 73,830

  • Last week's testing positivity: State report: 6.1%, Johns Hopkins: 7.95%

State death counts from COVID-19 tend to get updated and revised so that number may not reflect actual deaths occurring in that time period.

In the latest week COVID-19 cases in Florida were about 1.7 times what the CDC says is a high level of community transmission. A Sunday report said the state had 964 COVID-19 patients in hospital beds, from 1,017 a week earlier.

Sources: Florida Department of Health COVID report, U.S. Health and Human Services (hospitalizations)

Here's what's happening

- Remember how cases were rising again but hospitalizations were going down? Not anymore. Coronavirus-positive patients are filling up Florida's hospitals once again, but their numbers remain smaller than before the original omicron wave engulfed the state.

Medical staff statewide tended to an average of 738 COVID-positive patients this week, data released Friday by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department shows. That's higher than the week before, but still lower than the four-digit levels recorded in late November and early December.

- More children were hospitalized for COVID during omicron, CDC study finds. Most were unvaccinated. Children may be less likely than adults to be hospitalized with COVID-19, but a recent study found those who are still unvaccinated are suffering the worst consequences of the disease compared with their vaccinated peers.

Researchers found COVID-19-related hospitalization rates were about twice as high among unvaccinated children as those who were vaccinated during the omicron wave from December to February, according to the report published last week in the agency’s Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report.

- But any and all children's vaccination requirements might get struck down, if some legislators have their way. Since Jan. 1, 66 bills specifically related to childhood vaccine requirements have been introduced in statehouses, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures. Some seek to remove requirements for private schools, some expand religious exemptions, all promote individual rights over public health.

“Those are all chipping away at one of the end goals for anti-vaccine activists, which is completely doing away with school requirements,” said Rekha Lakshmanan, director of advocacy and public policy at the Immunization Partnership. “That’s what people need to be paying very close attention to.”

USA Today has the story for its subscribers.

- Gainesville officials approve $7 million in pandemic relief to dozens of local nonprofits. The money is intended to help a host of organizations provide and increase services to area residents – work that may have been hindered during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"It was a priority of this commission that money be distributed directly to our local nonprofit agencies because A: they have a relationship and proven track record with serving folks in the community that needs it most and B: they can do things the city simply can not," Mayor Lauren Poe said.

- Planning a wedding during COVID? Riding one COVID wave after another – and keeping an eye on the calendar – can be nerve-wracking when it comes to wedding planning.

USA Today has some expert advice for its subscribers from its health reporter (and person trying to plan her own wedding) on what works, and what doesn't.

COVID info to know

COVID-19 will be an issue for a long time to come, and we think more education is better. Here's what you need to know.

ABOUT COVID

AVOIDING COVID

TESTING

DO YOU HAVE COVID?

What do you want to know about COVID-19? You ask, we'll try to answer

From a reader: "Is there an internet site that gives daily or weekly covid statistics by county?"

As mentioned above, COVID numbers are tough to adequately track in Florida. The state Department of Health provides an update every two weeks but only includes one week of data, and other sources are often dependent on what the FDOH provides. County DOH sites no longer provide local numbers.

You can get detailed county-by-county data at the Johns Hopkins COVID-19 dashboard, which has been tracking cases since the pandemic began using information from Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University; the Red Cross; the Census American Community Survey; and the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. This still may not capture all the cases or deaths.

Anything you'd like to know? Ask your questions here.

Thank you for reading! We appreciate you trusting our statewide journalists to keep you safe and informed. If you are encouraged by our work and want to support your local journalists, please consider subscribing. Know someone who would benefit from this newsletter? Forward this email so they can sign up.

Chris' note of the day: So, Elon Musk is buying Twitter. For those of you who tweet, how do you think things on that massive social media network will change? Or will they?

Here's what else is happening with the coronavirus in Florida today.

— C. A. Bridges, cbridges@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Florida COVID numbers, hospitalizations rising again