TAMPA, Fla. — Thousands of people in Florida are hospitalized right now with COVID-19.
But this time, the crunch doesn't involve over the age of 65. Tampa Bay-area doctors tell 10 Investigates they're seeing more 20 to 30-year-olds and children.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, 3,230 people in the state are in the ICU for COVID-19.
"It's worse because we're seeing more COVID patients. During the peak last year, we had a little bit less than 700 total COVID patients across our 15 hospitals. And today, we have over 1,000,” explained Glenn Waters, the executive vice president and chief operating officer for BayCare Health System.
It’s the same story throughout the Tampa Bay area. The hospitals, once again, are full. COVID floors are back open.
“We're in a very bad situation. Right now we have a highly contagious virus,” Dr. Joseph Perno with Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital explained to Jennifer Titus.
Perno says cases and hospitalizations have constantly been going up since July.
"We're not even seeing the impact of school yet," he said. "So we're very, very scared. We have 20, 30 and 40-year-olds that are very, very sick and the ICU is with COVID that were otherwise healthy.”
"If you haven't gotten vaccinated, really, really consider getting the vaccine, it's proven to mitigate the effects of COVID,” Waters added.
He says right now the delta variant is taking over the ER, the ICU, everything is full.
“It is very real. It is," Waters said. "I wish I could take people that are skeptics and have them walk with me through our ICU and see the patients that are dying. It is very real. I've never seen anything like it before.”
Perno added that if your child does have a cold, don’t assume it’s just seasonal allergies. It could be COVID, so try and book a test.
