Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he's seeing reasons for optimism as COVID-19 hospitalizations in the state have been declining over the past couple weeks and more seniors have received vaccines.
During a news conference at The Villages Monday, DeSantis said state hospitalizations for coronavirus peaked in the middle of January at around 7,700.
"We've seen a huge decline in hospitalizations over the last two weeks, the admissions have gone down dramatically over the last two weeks and we hope that trend continues," DeSantis said.
DeSantis said the state has vaccinated nearly 30% of the state's 4.5 million seniors, which could be related to the hospitalizations going down.
"The more seniors we vaccinate, the lower the hospitalization number is going, cause those are the folks that are most likely to need admission to the hospitals," he said.
In addition to hospitalizations, DeSantis said he also determines how the state is doing by examining figures on emergency room visits for Covid-like illnesses, which peaked on Jan. 3.
"I don't get bent out of shape about these positive tests because if you test 200,000 people, you're gonna get a lot of positive tests, so that's never been the barometer we've used," DeSantis said.
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Despite his optimism, DeSantis warned of a potential surge of the virus in the spring.
"Covid is receding everywhere in the United States. Maybe that's seasonal, maybe it'll come back stronger in the spring," DeSantis said. "We obviously had a summer wave, maybe that's something we'll have to contend with but I think that with the vaccines continuing to be put out, I think it's gonna be harder for Covid to really have a serious spike, when you combine the people who have natural immunity through infection and then the vaccine."
