Uptick in COVID-19 cases adding to already high bed occupancy rates at area hospitals

Gainesville area hospitals are seeing a resurgence in COVID-19 cases, as well as the flu, that are nearly filling up hospital beds quickly.

The rise in cases, however, was expected by medical experts.

Dr. Sean Benoit, HCA Florida North Florida Hospital's chief medical officer, said it's even worse as the state enters the peak of the flu season. He said he recalled more people coming in with viral diseases, including COVID-19 and the flu, in November. Those numbers continue to increase each week despite a lack of reporting by agencies increasing with each passing day of the new year.

“We’ve been dealing with COVID and flu for a while so we are always concerned about them but I think our team knows how to take care of these patients really well,” Benoit said.

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Currently, North Florida Hospital has 24 COVID-19 patients. Two of those patients are in the ICU. As of Wednesday afternoon, UF Health Shands Hospital reported there were at least 87 patients who were admitted with COVID-19.

At least 57 of those patients are infectious, while the rest are deemed not to be infectious.

Last month, The Sun reported about 50 people were being treated at Shands for the virus.

Benoit said physicians at North Florida Hospital have seen a large number of people who are vaccinated with the virus due to mutated strains of COVID-19, but still recommends that people be vaccinated with the new booster shot.

Though there is no sure way to tell whether someone has COVID or the flu without being tested because symptoms are similar, Benoit says people should seek medical help experiencing shortness of breath.

The latest COVID-19 variant, XBB. 1.5, is about five times more contagious than the omicron variant. It also now accounts for about 40% of all new cases.

Hospital Bed Occupancy

In a data set from the Reno Gazette Journal, which measures hospital bed capacity and the number of people being admitted with COVID-19, 80% of inpatient beds were being utilized and 86.6% of ICU beds were occupied, fat Shands during the week of Dec. 23.

For the North Florida Hospital, there were 81.3% of inpatient beds were used and 91.2% of ICU beds under-occupancy.

According to the Reno Gazette Journal, the COVID-19 hospital capacity data comes from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Gershon Harrell is an education reporter at The Gainesville Sun. He can be reached by phone at (352)338-3166, by email at Gharrell@gannett.com or on Twitter at @GershonReports.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: COVID-19 numbers expected to grow by each day, hospitals say