JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Three new testing sites will open in Jacksonville Wednesday. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services says it’s because of an increase in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations.
According to the Florida Department of Health’s Tuesday report, 380 new COVID-19 hospitalizations were reported across the state, 16 of those are in Northeast Florida.
The Georgia Department of Health also reported more hospitalizations Tuesday, 307 new patients across the state.
“Right now is when we’re really seeing that first surge for us. So right now is when we’re starting to go through all of our equipment,” Action News Jax Medical Expert Dr. Michelle Aquino said.
Dr. Aquino works for Baptist Health. She said there are 120 coronavirus patients being treated at four of their hospitals. On June 22nd, they said they had 18 patients across all campuses.
“The numbers are definitely going up people are coming in sick. The average age of people coming in sick that are requiring hospitalization are also younger,” Dr. Aquino said.
The average age of these patients are about 36 or 37, much younger than a few months ago. She it’s alarming because these patients were otherwise young and healthy before getting infected with COVID-19.
“These are patients that are walking around, they’re going out, they’re eating dinner, they were going to the bars, and they’re getting sick coming into the hospital and are extremely sick and some have died. So very scary right now, you need to take care of yourself,” Dr. Aquino said.
56 Florida hospitals have reached capacity when it comes to ICU beds, CNN reported.
The statewide database of hospital capacity shows fewer than 18% of Duval County adult ICU beds are available right now.
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