A COVID-19 (remember that?) summer surge is hitting Florida, but there’s a silver lining

Another COVID-19 wave is sweeping Palm Beach County and Florida, but unlike previous summers, this one has been far less dangerous.

Sewage testing and regular COVID testing shows an undeniable surge of infections since early July. But few of those infected have gone to hospitals.

Local doctors say the COVID-positive patients they have seen in recent weeks are not as sick as those they tended to during previous waves. That could be a result of immunity granted by vaccines and previous infection, doctors said, along with the latest coronavirus strains being weaker than their ancestors.

“I’m hearing a lot more cases from family members, friends, colleagues, doctors,” the former Palm Beach County Medical Society president, Dr. Larry Bush, said. “There’s been a trickle of hospitalizations. But, fortunately, it’s not the same type we had early on (in the pandemic).”

Patients have milder symptoms, recover faster and go home, the epidemiologist said.

The latest COVID surge: What the latest numbers reveal

Hospitals across Florida tended to 7,674 COVID-positive patients between May 27 and July 22, the latest data from the U.S. Health and Human Services Department shows. During a similar time period in 2022, it was more than 35,000. In 2021, more than 24,000.

The Florida Department of Health has logged 635 COVID deaths during the six weeks ending July 20, much lower than the 2,072 during a similar period in 2022, or the 1,403 in 2021.

Yet the state health department has said about 17% of COVID test results it collected statewide during the week ending July 20 came back positive. It found similar ratios in late July of both 2022 and 2021. It is impossible to calculate current COVID cases because fewer people seek out testing at public sites, opting instead for at-home test kits.

Sewage testing conducted Monday in northern Palm Beach County found about 761 coronavirus particles per milliliter of wastewater, the most since March and on the same level as May 2022, data from the Jupiter-area Loxahatchee River District shows.

Why does COVID surge every summer in Florida?

COVID has surged each summer in Florida since the pandemic started in large part because higher temperatures drive people indoors where the airborne virus can spread more easily.

But hospitals are not filling up anywhere near as fast as they did the past two summers, Palm Beach County doctors say. Boynton Beach infectious disease specialist Dr. Kitonga Kiminyo echoed Bush, saying that although he and his colleagues are seeing an increasing number of COVID cases, “the patients in general are not as sick as previously noted with other surges.”

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“The latest surge is probably related to the fact that we have persistent, circulating virus,” Kiminyo said, “and to some degree, many people’s immunity is waning as less people are getting boosted, but thankfully the actual infections appear to be mild.”

Dr. Dushyantha Jayaweera, an infectious disease specialist with the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, said the most common symptom he sees among today’s COVID patients is that they feel tired or have sniffles. During previous waves, though, they would be “fatigued, sweaty, clammy,” he said.

And patients during deadlier COVID waves would need high-flow nasal cannulas hooked into their noses to pump oxygen. “Rarely we use it now,” he said.

Another reason hospitalization counts might be because of health insurance, Bush said.

Because it’s costly for insurers to cover patients admitted to the hospital, they encourage doctors in their networks to tell their patients to visit them for same-day diagnosis and treatment of COVID instead of going to the ER.

Jayaweera agrees that insurance companies play a role. “There must be a reason these guys are covering you,” he said.

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But even though the latest coronavirus strains — mutations of the omicron variant — may be weaker than the pathogen’s previous versions, it does not mean people should forgo basic protections, the doctors say.

“You still need to wear mask in a very crowded place if you go to a movie or something” if you want to be best protected, Jayaweera said.

The latest on COVID: Questions and answers

• What is the latest vaccine? Pharmaceutical company Pfizer asked the Food and Drug Administration in June to authorize an updated version of its COVID vaccine, CEO Albert Bourla said Tuesday during an investor call. The shot would target the virus’ XBB.1.5 strain. Other XBB versions dominate the COVID scene nationwide, but experts have said the vaccine would be effective against warding off severe illness from those closely related strains.
• When would the vaccine be available? The updated shots could be available as soon as late August.
• Are booster shots still free? Yes. Even though the government’s supply of COVID-19 vaccines is likely to run out soon, they are still free for now. People without insurance will continue to have access, companies that make the shots (Moderna and Pfizer) say.
• What boosters are still available: Moderna and Pfizer. The Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) COVID-19 vaccine is no longer available in the United States. According to the CDC, the government supply of that coronavirus vaccine expired in May. The CDC is also advising Americans 18 years old and older who have been vaccinated with the J&J vaccine to now get a dose of the bivalent vaccine — either the Pfizer or the Moderna product. 
• What if you don’t have insurance? Most private and government-run insurance plans cover the vaccines. Starting this fall, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention plans to make the shots freely available to health centers and clinics known as Federally Qualified Healthcare Centers, which mostly serve uninsured people.

Chris Persaud is The Palm Beach Post’s data reporter. Email him atcpersaud[at]pbpost.com. Follow him on Twitter at@ChrisMPersaud.