Number of COVID patients in regular hospital beds represented 1.9% of total beds, as shown in April 24 CDC chart
Sarasota County’s COVID positivity rate declined even more, week-over-week, in the latest report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), The Sarasota News Leader learned.
Averaged over the seven days through April 23, the rate was 10.6%, the CDC said. That was down from 12.68% in the agency’s report on April 16.
The CDC pointed out in its April 23 chart that the figure had declined 1.83% since its previous seven-day average.
Further, the CDC reported an estimated 30 new patients with COVID-19 had been admitted to county hospitals over the seven days through April 24. The estimated total for the seven days through April 17 was 41, the agency said at that time.
The CDC added that its April 24 tally marked a drop of 28.1%, compared to its previous seven-day calculation.
The number of county hospital beds in use by COVID patients over the seven days through April 24 represented just 1.9% of the total, the CDC said. Moreover, the agency noted that only 1% of all the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds in the county were being used by COVID-19 patients over the seven days through April 24.
In its April 17 chart, the CDC reported that the data it had collected over the seven days through that date showed that 2.5% of all ICU beds in the county were in use by COVID patients.
In its April 20 status update for Sarasota County, the CDC said that the number of hospital beds in the county in use by COVID patients represented 2.1% of the total. The April 27 status update for the county raised that to 2.2% — a slight variation from the figure in the April 24 chart on the agency’s website.
Nonetheless, the April 27 status update for the county put the number of COVID-19 patient admissions to county hospitals over the seven days through that date at 10 per 100,000 residents, based on the latest data that the CDC had received.
The April 27 status report for Sarasota County also raised the transmission level of the virus from “Low,” where it had been over the past couple of weeks, to “Medium.”
The latest CDC map for Florida showing the transmission level of all counties — based on data collected from April 13 through April 19 — marked DeSoto and Charlotte counties with “Medium” levels, as well. All of the other counties were classified with “Low” transmission.
Every county was marked with the “Low” designation in the April 13 map.
When the News Leader checked the Florida Department of Health website on April 27, it found no updates on COVID-19 data since the last state report was released on April 14.
The CDC had no new case data in its report for the county for the seven days through April 19.