- April 30, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
Officials of AdventHealth’s Central Florida Division reassured citizens Friday that the health care system is equipped to handle the region’s unprecedented COVID-19 surge and implored those who are unvaccinated to get a vaccination now.
Hospitalizations among the seven-county area, including Flagler and Volusia counties, surpassed 1,060 Friday, July 30.
“We have peaked above any previous waves and it is straining our system, physicians and team members,” Neil Finkler, the division’s chief clinical officer, said in the July 30 briefing. “None of these patients thought they would get the virus. But the Delta variant has proven to be so highly contagious that even the young and healthy – including the pregnant – are filling up our hospitals.”
AdventHealth’s transition to “black status” means non-emergency surgeries will be deferred and health-care workers will be redeployed.
“The whole point of black status is to be proactive so we continue to have availability in both beds and staff,” Finkler said. “One of the advantages to a very large system is the ability to flex capacity.”
Finkler said 6% of COVID patients are fully vaccinated but almost every single one of them have problems with their immune systems because of cancer therapy or autoimmune diseases.
“For the most part, it’s a tale of two cities,” he said.
He said breakthrough infections among the fully vaccinated do occur but they tend to be milder cases of shorter duration that don’t require hospitalization.
“We’re here today to implore our community, if you have not been vaccinated, please vaccinate now,” he said.
Finkler said in this recent surge, 99% of COVID deaths have been among the unvaccinated population.
Linnette Johnson, a chief nursing officer with AdventHealth Central Florida, said the health system’s officials are confident they have all the equipment they’ll need to survive the surge, including ventilators and personal protective equipment.
But Johnson and Finkler said it is hard to predict how long the surge will last. The rate of positive COVID tests at AdventHealth’s Centra Care clinics is at or near its peak of 26%.
“Centra Care’s typically been the canary in the coal mine for us, a predictor (for hospital admissions),” Finkler said. “We think we are going to see increased admissions at least for the next week, if not two.”
The doctors urged people in need of a COVID test to avoid emergency rooms unless they are having trouble breathing.
Finkler said there has been a change in the demographics of COVID patients. The average age, he said, is now in the 50s with about one-third under the age of 50. He said pediatric cases increased early in the week, driven by the contagious Delta variant, and urged parents to consider having their children wear masks in the classroom when school resumes.
“Whatever we ask of our nurses and physicians, they say yes. But they are exhausted."
LINETTE JOHNSON, Nursing officer, AdventHealth
Black status will remain in effect at least until next week, AdventHealth officials announced. Non-emergency surgeries and all hospital-based outpatient procedures will be deferred.
“Black Status allows us to redeploy clinicians and nurses,” Johnson said. “Whatever we ask of our nurses and physicians, they say yes. But they are exhausted. We see the faces. We see the regret. We see the despair.
“We see the goodbyes,” she added. “At that point it’s too late to wear a mask or get a vaccine.”
