New coronavirus cases in Central Florida have plateaued which has some doctors at AdventHealth worried about another surge.
Urgent Care Medical Director Dr. Tim Hendrix says about 330 patients are currently hospitalized at AdventHealth for COVID-19.
Hendrix says although that’s a decrease in hospitalizations, that decline has slowed, which he says is worrisome.
“If you look at that 300 that’s about where we were back in the fall after the summer surge. But then we went back up in the winter time. So we’re worried that this has the potential to increase.”
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There’s been a 16 percent increase in positive coronavirus tests at AdventHealth Centra Care in the past seven days over the previous week.
Hendrix says this was to be expected after the busy Spring Break holiday in Orlando, but he says video of people on beaches in South Florida without face masks is concerning.
“There’s the potential for those people that are visiting South Florida from other states or other regions in Florida to return and continue the spread of that variant.”
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Hendrix says the only way to get the numbers back down is get more people vaccinated and to continue to use pandemic precautions like wearing face masks and social distancing.
He says all evidence suggests the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are effective against the UK COVID variant.
