COVID-19 Surge Means More 911 Calls Than Ambulances Can Handle

PASCO COUNTY, FL — Pasco County Fire Rescue's fire chief is appealing to the community to be patient and only call 911 with a dire emergency. There simply aren't enough ambulances free to respond to all calls these days.

Fire Chief Scott Cassin said the surge in COVID-19 patients needing to be hospitalized has caused a countywide shortage of ambulances available for emergency calls.

More people who test positive for the delta variant of the coronavirus require hospitalization, Cassin said Tuesday, and Pasco County's 13 hospitals don't have enough beds or staff to care for the influx. The county has 1,582 beds designated for coronavirus patients.

"Pasco County hospitals are currently being inundated with patients, and the time it takes to be seen in an emergency room is skyrocketing across our community," Cassin said. "Many of our hospitals are at or over capacity, and ambulances are currently holding patients at hospitals for hours at a time due to the lack of available beds and hospital staff."

Cassin said this means 911 callers have a long wait before an ambulance arrives.

He urged all Pasco County residents age 12 and older to get vaccinated against the virus to decrease the chances that, if they contract COVID-19, they will experience life-threatening symptoms that will send them to the hospital.

To help reduce hospitalizations, Paula Coleman, division chief of emergency medical services for Pasco Fire Rescue, said people experiencing coronavirus symptoms should immediately visit their doctor, urgent care center, pharmacy or the Pasco County Department of Health to be tested.

Early diagnosis and treatment of the coronavirus will lessen the chance of needing life-saving care and reduce the pressure on the county's hospitals, she said.

"Please help EMS agencies from around the Bay area provide life-saving interventions for those who truly need them," Coleman said. "If your 911 call is not an emergency that needs immediate medical attention such as chest pain, shortness of breath, stroke, serious trauma or other life-threatening illness or injury, please contact your doctor's office or go to a walk-in clinic or urgent care center. This will get you the help you need in a timelier manner while, at the same time, assist currently overworked staff at hospitals."

Pasco County has 13 hospitals including AdventHealth and BayCare Health, both of which have paused all elective surgeries due to the rising number of coronavirus cases.

On Monday, BayCare Health Chief Operating Officer Glenn Waters said the coronavirus "continues to wreak havoc in the Tampa Bay area."

"This is a difficult time for our team members and those affected by COVID-19," Waters said. "BayCare has reached a grim milestone of COVID-19 hospitalizations, with cases increasing 10-fold since the beginning of July. We are doing everything we can to meet the needs of our community during this crisis."

As of Monday, BayCare had more than 1,100 hospitalized COVID-19 patients across its 14 acute care hospitals in Tampa Bay, he said.

"In comparison, July 2020 peaked at about 700 COVID-19 patients before any vaccinations were available," he said.

The majority of COVID-19 patients being seen in the emergency rooms aren't vaccinated, he said.

Most of the patients are between ages 19 and 64 as opposed to last year, when the hospital group's majority of coronavirus patients were older persons, he said.

As a result, BayCare has paused all elective surgeries and procedures in its hospitals in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Polk and Pasco counties.

"This will help reserve resources for the urgent and emergent needs of severely ill patients," Waters said.

AdventHealth is experiencing similar shortage of beds. The hospital said it has now surpassed its highest number of coronavirus patients since the pandemic began.

As a result, it postponed all elective procedures requiring an overnight stay at its Dade City and Zephyrhills hospitals as of Monday.

Florida is seeing an average of 21,680 new cases of coronavirus a day, an all-time high for the state. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Florida had 33,316 new coronavirus cases and 249 deaths from the coronavirus on Monday.

While the state no longer releases data on specific hospitals and the number of coronavirus beds, the CDC's latest tally shows there were 236,733 admissions between Aug. 1 and 15.

The CDC said what's especially alarming is the ages of those patients.

As of Aug. 13:

• 6.1 percent were children age 0 to 11
• 8.5 percent were children age 12 to 15
• 9.2 percent were 16 to 17 years old
• 8.9 percent were 18 to 24 years old
• 12.9 percent were 25 to 39 years old
• 16.5 percent were 40 to 45 years old

Those ages are substantially younger than the patients who were hospitalized last year.

Florida now leads the nation in the number of new coronavirus cases (see charts below).