Escambia County COVID-19 hospitalizations break all-time record. And it’s far from over. – Pensacola News Journal
The number of coronavirus patients being treated at Escambia County hospitals reached an all-time record this weekend, and health care officials caution that figure will likely continue to rise.
COVID-19 patient hospitalizations at the county’s three major hospitals — Ascension Sacred Heart, Baptist and West Florida hospitals — have climbed during the past several weeks and reached 311 on Saturday, shattering the previous pandemic record of 291 set Jan. 14.
Pensacola Mayor Grover Robinson announced the grim new record during his weekly news conference Monday, flanked by local health care and hospital leaders.
Hospitalizations have continued to rise since Saturday, reaching 320 on Sunday and 322 on Monday, according to the county’s COVID-19 dashboard.
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Health care officials warned that cases likely haven’t peaked yet as the new, highly transmissible delta variant takes hold and pleaded with the public to get vaccinated.
“The only defense we have to minimize illness and death is the vaccine. I appeal to you today, as I know all of my colleagues will do the same, to get vaccinated if you have not,” said West Florida Healthcare CEO Gay Nord. “The burden on our community and our health care system is real.”
Because of the spike, West Florida has started to reschedule certain elective surgeries to reallocate resources across the hospital.
“Obviously, we are assessing that daily. We have certainly decreased our elective surgeries so that we can reallocate resources across the hospital,” Nord said.
Neither Baptist Health Care or Ascension Sacred Heart have reduced elective surgeries and procedures, but leaders say they continue to evaluate the situation.
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West Florida has implemented its “surge plans” to help adjust to the number of hospital patients needing care so the hospital still has beds available.
“We certainly have capacity so I certainly don’t want the misnomer out there that we don’t. But we definitely have ICU capacity as well,” Nord said.
Around the country, about 94% of hospitalizations are among people who are unvaccinated. That’s similar to what health care leaders are seeing in the Pensacola community as well, Nord said.
“The facts are the highest spread of cases and severe outcomes are happening in places with low vaccination rates. And virtually all hospitalizations and deaths have been among the unvaccinated,” Nord said.
That’s why officials are pushing the public to continue to get vaccinated.
The latest data from Florida Department of Health shows that 46% of residents in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties were fully vaccinated through Aug. 5.
Ascension Sacred Heart President Dawn Rudolph said residents who still might be hesitant to get the vaccine should know that the long-term effects of the delta variant remain unknown.
“It’s just kind of shown itself,” Rudolph said of the variant. “What are the long-term effects of getting that variant into your system? We do know that the vaccine is the best protection because it’s not a live virus.”
During the initial first waves of the pandemic, Rudolph said Sacred Heart saw a spike in the need for pulmonary rehabilitation and other related treatments because many patients had long-term symptoms from contracting the virus.
Baptist Hospital President Scott Raynes stressed that vaccines play a key role in not only containing the virus but also in lessening symptoms when there is a rare breakthrough infection of a vaccinated person.
He said that since the vaccine started to become widely available to adults in March, Baptist Health Care system has not had a single vaccinated person die from COVID-19.
In July, not one person placed on a ventilator had been vaccinated, Raynes said.
“There’s no question, no question, an unvaccinated individual with COVID versus a vaccinated person experiencing a breakthrough is more acutely ill, overwhelming so,” Raynes said.
Many of the COVID-19 patients being hospitalized in the latest wave also are younger than many of the patients hospitalized throughout the earlier part of the pandemic.
With school starting this week in both Escambia and Santa Rosa counties, health care leaders are particularly concerned about the virus spreading among children who cannot yet receive a vaccine. Only the Pfizer vaccine is currently authorized for children 12 and older, while both the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are available to those 18 and older.
“Last year, it was our elderly and medically compromised who are our most vulnerable. Today, it is our children,” said Community Health Northwest Florida Executive Director Chandra Smiley. “As we embark on another school year, I am gravely concerned about the health and safety of the children in our community and, as we wait for a pediatric vaccine, for those that are eligible, I, we (health care leaders), encourage you to get vaccinated.”
The Studer Family Children’s Hospital is also reporting more pediatric COVID-19 patients with this latest surge. The area’s hospitalization numbers are not divided into pediatric and adult cases so officials did not have the exact number of pediatric cases Monday.
“That’s frustrating to our caregivers, knowing that had we used vaccinations to a higher degree here in Escambia County, we would see a less amount of hospitalizations,” Rudolph said.
Pensacola mask mandate unlikely to be reimplemented
While the city of Pensacola brought back face coverings at City Hall, Robinson said Monday that a city-wide mask mandate isn’t being considered at this time.
Pensacola was under an ordinance requiring face coverings to be worn inside businesses within city limits for about 10 months of the pandemic. The order, which was implemented in June 2020, quietly expired this April.
Robinson said Monday that a mask mandate would be a temporary solution and feared it could discourage people from getting the vaccine.
“I had no problem doing a mask when that’s all we had. But what I don’t want to see us do, and this is what we will struggle with is, do we fall on that mask crutch and we don’t get the vaccine?” Robinson said. “Every speaker here has said, ‘Get the vaccine.’ That’s what we’ve got to do.”
Raynes still stressed the importance of face coverings, however, as a safe and effective way to prevent the spread of infection.
“Masking is a tool in the tool belt to fight and prevent. It is a weapon in our arsenal and it is a tried and true method of safety that goes back pre-1900s that health care workers have used over and over and over again,” he said. “It should be the least controversial of anything we have to work with regards to flattening the curve.”
Madison Arnold can be reached at marnold@pnj.com and 850-435-8522.