The surge in new COVID cases in Florida amid the spread of the Delta variant means hospitals are scrambling to find space to care for the increasing number of seriously ill patients from the virus. AdventHealth Orlando has moved to level red when it comes to prioritizing patients.
"To try to postpone, reschedule medical care that is not urgent," Dr. Victor Herrera says, "to increase capacity so we can care for the increasing number of patients that we're seeing."
Dr. Herrera says this is definitely a 'pandemic of the unvaccinated.' He says those chosing not to get a shot are putting themselves on the short end of the risk-versus-benefit ratio.
"In their minds they're sometimes thinking, 'what is the risk of the vaccine versus the risk of getting COVID' and I think that we are seeing is that clearly the risk from COVID can be much higher."
AdventHealth has almost 900 COVID patients hospitalized at its facilities across Central Florida- about the same number the system had back in January.
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