Over the past week, an average of around 10,641 cases of COVID-19 per day have been reported in Florida. While statewide, the rate of new infections remains relatively unchanged from what the Florida Department of Health reported two weeks ago, officials with Lee Health and Sarasota Memorial Health Care System say the number of people being hospitalized with the coronavirus has been increasing over the past couple of months. Hospitalization rates remain far below levels experienced during the omicron wave last summer, and generally, symptoms tend to be milder with fewer hospitalization patients requiring ICU-level treatment.
Still, health experts say it’s too soon to let our guard down, particularly for people who are more vulnerable due to age or who are immunocompromised.
Since the beginning of the pandemic at least one in three Florida residents has been infected with a total of more than 6.4 million reported cases. At least one in 283 Floridians have died from COVID-19 with a total of 75,891 deaths.
The Florida Department of Health reports that a total of 15,866,087 people in the state have received at least one dose coronavirus vaccine.
Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a Moderna and a Pfizer COVID vaccine series for very young kids from six months to five years old.
For those in the very early days of a COVID infection have several options available to help lessen the severity of symptoms through antiviral and monoclonal antibody treatments.
We’ll get the latest from Pediatric Infectious Diseases Specialist and Lee Health’s Chief of Quality and Patient Safety Dr. Stephanie Stovall. We also hear from Pharmacotherapy Specialist in Infectious Diseases at Sarasota Memorial Hospital Dr. Jamie Kisgen.
