Florida COVID-19 cases are on the rise, reminding us that variants infect people who were never vaccinated. Cleveland Clinic is seeing more patients since March, and most of them are adults 20 to 45 and require respiratory support.
The delta variant is playing a significant role in increased hospitalizations. However, health officials warn that it is more transmissible.
Getting regular COVID-19 data from the state has been challenging since they stopped publishing hospital numbers in June. We can’t even get accurate numbers for Sebastian, Micco, Fellsmere, and other local towns.
Sources at Cleveland Clinic tell Sebastian Daily that the number of COVID-19 patients is rising for the first time since March. However, Indian River still has fewer patients than St. Lucie and Martin Counties.
Indian River has about 30 patients, which is a 25 percent increase than the week prior. St. Lucie and Martin have about 150 patients. Staff at Cleveland Clinic say they are preparing for more patients.
According to last week’s data from DOH, there are 377 COVID-19 cases in Indian River County, and the new case positively rate is 15.4%.
CDC may recommend face masks again
Federal health officials are considering a recommendation that all vaccinated people wear masks in public again, according to Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
“This is under active consideration. If we don’t vaccinate people, the model is going to predict that we’re going to be in trouble as we continue to get more and more cases,” Fauci said.
During a press conference on Thursday in Fort Pierce, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said regardless of the CDC’s guidance, Florida would not impose any mask mandates at public schools during the pandemic.
“There’s been talk about potentially people advocating at the federal level, imposing compulsory masks on kids,” DeSantis said. “We’re not doing that in Florida, OK? We need our kids to breathe.”
