For weeks, Florida has been seeing a consistent decline in COVID hospitalizations. As of Thursday, Florida had a total of 9,917 confirmed hospitalizations, according to the Florida Hospital Association (FHA) through the Department of Health and Human Services.
Over the last seven days, Florida has seen a 19 percent decrease in hospitalizations and approximately a 32 percent decrease over a 14-day average.
FHA President and CEO Mary Mayhew said this is the first time Florida has had hospitalization numbers below 10,000 since July.
“Our state has seen a nearly one-third reduction in COVID-19 hospitalizations in the last two weeks with today marking the first time since July 30 that COVID-19 hospitalizations in Florida have stood below 10,000,” said Mayhew. “While the state is clearly on the right track, it should be noted that we still have roughly the same number of people hospitalized today as we did at the height of the surge last year. Getting vaccinated and receiving monoclonal antibody treatments for those who test positive remain the best protection against serious illness and possible hospitalization.”
Florida’s rebound from a COVID spike in summer can, in large part, be attributed to access to different forms of treatment, namely monoclonal antibody therapy.
Earlier this month, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis praised the implementation of monoclonal treatments across Florida’s 25 treatment sites.
“For too long during this whole ordeal – particularly since we had the monoclonals – the message to a lot of patients was basically, ‘Hey if you’re infected just go home and hope you don’t get deathly ill enough to come back to the hospital,’” DeSantis said. “Those days are over in Florida.”
As the monoclonal treatments were being initially rolled out, DeSantis held a roundtable with Florida hospital CEOs and health experts to discuss the impact of the treatment.
“It’s very effective,” said John Couris, CEO of Tampa General Hospital. “Anecdotally, almost 100% of our patients have told us that 24 to 48 hours (after treatment) they feel much better and symptoms start to subside.”
Despite the vast access and effectiveness in Florida, the President Joe Biden administration announced this week it would be gaining control of the nationwide monoclonal treatment distribution and said states like Florida would be given rations of the therapy.
DeSantis responded by saying he will be fighting the Biden administration over the limited access to treatment and will still work to provide Floridians with the therapy.
“We’re going to make sure we leave no stone unturned, DeSantis said. “Whoever needs a treatment, we’re going to make sure we get them a treatment.”
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Grant Holcomb is a reporter at the Florida Capital Star and The Star News Network. Follow Grant on Twitter and direct message tips.
