ORLANDO, Fla. – AdventHealth’s Central Florida division continues to see a high number of hospitalizations, with over 1,500 patients across the hospital system, tripling the total hospitalizations in the last month, according to health officials.
The hospital system provided an update Thursday morning, saying there were about 1,580 patients hospitalized. In comparison, Dr. Michael Keating, chief medical officer for AdventHealth for children, said there were 430 patients across the hospital system on July 15.
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“We’ve tripled that, and it doesn’t look like it’s slowing down. So the surge continues and we’ve got to, you know, blunt that surge. We’re in a war,” he said.
AdventHealth officials said there were about a dozen children hospitalized, an all-time high. Keating said there were no children hospitalized last year because masks and social distancing measures were in place. He also said a large majority of children who have tested positive went to the hospital for other reasons and were asymptomatic.
“We’ve got to get back to that time because things really haven’t changed,” he said.
Many students returned to the classroom this week in Central Florida, where many districts have a mask policy in place, although parents can opt their children out. Despite the return, Keating reiterated the situation with the virus has not changed and, if anything, “things have gotten worse.”
AdventHealth updated its visitor policy last week to support its team members caring for the increasing number of patients. The system also moved to “black” status at the end of July and deferred all non-emergency surgeries throughout the division.