Florida has new curve amid new surge

MIAMI — Fighting a surge in coronavirus cases in the spring, Florida appeared to be “flattening the curve” as theme parks shuttered, sugar sand beaches closed and residents heeded orders to stay home. Now, it’s almost as if that never happened.

Bars, restaurants and gyms began reopening in May — critics said it was too soon — and weeks later, the Sunshine State became one of the country’s virus hot spots, experiencing an alarming surge in cases. On Thursday, officials reported 120 deaths in one day, the highest number since the previous record of 113 in early May.

“We thought maybe we could keep this thing under wraps. And that worked for a little bit of time,” Dr. Jason Wilson, an E.R. physician at Tampa General Hospital, said in a conversation with Tampa Mayor Jane Castor livestreamed Wednesday on Facebook. “But eventually … it caught up to us.”

From Miami to Jacksonville and Tampa, hospitals in June and July have seen their numbers of coronavirus patients triple, with new patients outpacing those being discharged.

A record 435 newly hospitalized patients were reported Friday to have tested positive for the virus, including some who sought care for other reasons and aren’t necessarily symptomatic. There were 6,806 patients being treated for COVID-19 in Florida hospitals, according to a new tally that state officials started releasing Friday. Before that, available data only showed overall hospital occupancy and capacity, including noncoronavirus patients.

Hospital networks are scrambling to hire more health care workers to expand their COVID units. Last week, hospitals in several cities announced they would again halt or reduce nonemergency procedures to free up space.

Wilson and other health experts believe the spike was sparked in large part by young people who weren’t experiencing symptoms and were more likely to take fewer precautions while gathering at reopened bars and crowded beaches.

“We saw the floodgates open really for young people having what we call asymptomatic or presymptomatic spread,” he said. “Three weeks later, we are starting to see everyone else starting to get the virus as well.”

The state’s predicament echoes that of other current hot spots. Texas, which is marking its deadliest week of the pandemic, on Thursday reported a record daily death toll of more than 100, a new high for hospitalizations for the 10th consecutive day, and a nearly 16 percent positive test rate, its highest yet. In Arizona, hospitals were at nearly 90 percent capacity, with a record 3,437 patients hospitalized as of Wednesday, and a record number of those, 575, on ventilators, health officials said. Earlier in the week, a record high number of 871 patients filled ICU beds.

In Miami-Dade, Florida’s worst-hit county, a few of the smaller hospitals have run out of ICU beds completely, though countywide there were still about 14 percent available as of Friday, the state health agency reported. Even hospitals with some of the biggest ICUs in the state are stretched: Tampa General currently has 70 patients who are infected, half of whom are in ICU beds, Wilson said.

More than 45 percent of intensive care units in Florida hospitals were at capacity or had fewer than 10 percent of their beds available as of Friday, the state Agency for Health Care Administration reported on its website.

However, many hospitals can convert additional beds to ICUs. Florida Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Mary Mayhew said her agency is working with hospitals to open up hospital beds by discharging patients who can be cared for at home through telehealth, and sending COVID-19 positive patients who don’t need hospitalization to nursing facilities where they can be isolated.