ORANGE COUNTY, Florida – The morgues at some hospitals are ready and the additional refrigeration units in charge of handling the overflow are nearly full, Orange County officials also confirmed Thursday at a regular COVID-19 press conference.
What you need to know
- The youths of some hospitals in Orange County have exceeded capacity, officials confirmed
- The county is evaluating whether to ask for more storage
- Deaths from COVID-19 have increased for three months in a row, said Dr. Raúl Pino
- Orange County leaders say approximately 95% of deaths are unvaccinated
- Since the beginning of the pandemic, 1,499 people in Orange County have died from COVID
Requests for additional units and assets to address the shortage are handled by the emergency management division, so neither Dr. Raul Pino, director of the Florida-Orange Department of Health, nor Dr. Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings had not received direct requests, they said. But they confirmed that they had been notified of the need.
“I’m not surprised this happens,” Pino said. “It’s happened in the past.”
Due to the increase in deaths from COVID-19, hospitals have to keep the bodies of the dead for longer while they wait for burial or cremation.
In fact, Demings said: ‘Through our emergency management division, we were notified that even those facilities that offer cremations, some of which are in condition and yes, are’ informed us that some of our hospitals are in condition.
“So when it comes to the Orange County Medical Office, I know that not only through deaths from COVID-19, but deaths can increase overall across the county.”
Officials are working to understand how the county could offer some relief, but that path has not yet been defined, Demings said. Florida has detailed plans for such situations, he said.
“There are detailed plans in the state of Florida for this type of situation that can occur. An application may be required from the state for the deployment of additional portable refrigeration units,” Demings said. . “We’re just doing an assessment right now to determine how important it is, so we don’t have the final answer today. But we’re working on it.”
A statement from the AdventHealth division in Central Florida said, ““ We have a robust emergency management program, which has allowed us to continue to care for our community during this wave with thorough planning and precautionary measures. With the rise of seriously ill patients in our hospitals, it is prudent that we prepare for an increase in deaths and put resources into providing additional capacity if necessary. “
Pino said COVID deaths in Florida have risen for three months in a row in Orange County. Pino said seventy-three people have died so far in August, up from 58 in July and 31 in June.
Orange County leaders say approximately 95% of deaths are unvaccinated.
Orange County has had 201,835 cases of COVID and about 20 percent of new cases belong to the 5-14 age group, Pino said.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, 1,499 people have died from COVID-19 in Orange County, Pino said.
He indicated that the news is not so bad, however. The county’s 14-day positivity rate has dropped to 19.27%, from 20.5% on August 19th.
An average of more than 4,000 COVID tests are requested daily at the county’s three free trial locations.