Alachua County and Florida both report their first COVID-19 cases decrease of the new year

COVID-19 cases fell in Alachua County and across the State of Florida this week for the first time in 2022.

Hospitalizations, however, are still on the rise.

Here is a closer look at the latest data for both areas:

Pandemic impacts local school disctrict: COVID-19 surge in Alachua County Public Schools leads to staff shortages

Last week's report: Alachua County soars past 50,000 cumulative COVID-19 cases

Alachua County

According to Friday's COVID-19 Weekly Situation Report from the Florida Department of Health, Alachua County had 4,943 new COVID-19 cases between Jan. 14-20 — that's 1,500 less than the previous week's 6,524 and the first decline since early December.

They brought the county's cumulative case total to 58,537.

Alachua County's new case positivity rate, unlike the number of cases, continued to rise from 28.9% to 30.7%, according to the report. High positivity rates indicate that not enough testing is being reported to accurately assess how many infections are actually occurring.

The county now has a total of 178,170 people vaccinated, accounting for about 69% of the vaccine-eligible population — those ages 5 and older — and 65% of the whole population, according to the FDOH report.

FDOH does not publicly report COVID-19 deaths by county. However, a federal document called the COVID-19 Community Profile Report published Thursday showed that Alachua County had 538 cumulative COVID-19 deaths.

The Alachua County Public Schools COVID-19 dashboard, updated Friday, showed a continued surge in student and staff cases so far in January.

In the prior 10 days, 1,124 students and 186 staff COVID-19 cases were reported — about 31% and 32% of the district's total 2021-22 school year cases, respectively. The dashboard also tallied 1,449 quarantined students on Thursday, accounting for over 5% of the student population.

Buchholz High School, with 95, had the highest number of student COVID-19 cases over those 10 days, according to the dashboard. Kanapaha Middle School had the most staff cases in the same time period, with 9.

Here’s a breakdown of new cases in surrounding counties as listed in the FDOH report:

• Bradford: +455 (6,504 total)

• Columbia: +1,227 (18,360 total)

• Dixie: +180 (3,456 total)

• Gilchrist: +250 (3,790 total)

• Lafayette: +107 (2,471 total)

• Levy: +671 (8,845 total)

• Marion: +4,696 (73,004 total)

• Putnam: +972 (15,530 total)

• Suwannee: +736 (11,215 total)

• Union: +239 (3,777 total)

Hospitals and health care workers

The county COVID-19 dashboard showed hospitalizations continued to rise again this week. Friday's tally hit levels similar to early September, counting 307 COVID-19-positive adult inpatients in three local hospitals, including 108 in intensive care and 18 on ventilators.

The dashboard separately listed 11 pediatric COVID-19 patients for Friday and displayed that the majority of all inpatients hospitalized with coronavirus were unvaccinated.

Also this week, North Florida Regional Medical Center said it will implement a healthcare worker vaccine requirement with a deadline of Feb. 28 following a Jan. 13 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allowed the Biden administration's vaccine mandate for health care workers to move forward.

"North Florida Regional Medical Center has always encouraged colleagues to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and made vaccines readily available. The majority of our colleagues have been vaccinated against COVID-19 or have been approved for a vaccine exemption for medical or religious reasons," said spokeswoman Lauren Lettelier. "If we do not comply with the CMS mandate, we could compromise our ability to serve our communities and provide care to patients under the Medicare and Medicaid programs."

According to Ed Jimenez, CEO of UF Health Shands Hospital, said their lawyers are actively working on the mandate.

"One thing we know to be true is that CMS, as an agency that creates the funding, will absolutely demand it of hospitals," Jimenez said Tuesday. "We just need to figure out how we can comply with the requirements as well as state law."

See also: Gainesville hospitals reviewing policies for staff vaccinations after Supreme Court ruling

COVID-19 Variants

According to FDOH data sampling COVID-19 variants of concern that was received from a public records request placed by lawyers for Gannett, the company that owns the Gainesville Sun, Florida had at least 3,573 omicron variant cases confirmed as of Jan. 14. Another 37,620 were attributed to the delta B.1.617.2 lineage.

A little over 2% of the delta cases were hospitalized, while not more than 1% of the omicron cases were, according to the data.

An analysis of the FDOH data done by the Gainesville Sun shows that for Alachua County between Dec. 1 and Jan. 14, there were 20 delta variant and 47 omicron variant cases in the sample size. Only a small number of tests are sequenced to determine the variant.

The majority of the omicron cases were found in younger residents, with teenagers and young adults 15-34 years old making up almost two thirds.

Florida

The number of new COVID-19 cases in Florida decreased for the first time this year as 289,204 cases were reported between Jan. 14-20, according to FDOH's Friday report. The previous week had 430,297.

In the same time period, the number of people getting the COVID-19 vaccine fell again after a single week increase from the previous report's 86,383 to this Friday's 55,287. About 73% of Florida's eligible population and just under 69% of its total population have now been vaccinated.

Throughout the state, the report showed, Floridians ages 65 and older made up the most vaccinated age group, at 91%, while Floridians ages 5-11 made up one of the least vaccinated groups at 19%.

The state also added 605 more COVID-19 deaths to its cumulative total for 63,763 throughout the pandemic.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: COVID-19 cases fall in Alachua County and Florida for first time in 2022