Video: Community members line up to receive coronavirus testing at NCH Baker Hospital Naples Daily News With the state’s projected peak just a week and a half away, Southwest Florida’s hospitals are bracing for a sharp increase in COVID-19 coronavirus cases, even as they are already stretching out critically needed safety gear. Florida’s highest demand for hospital beds, intensive care units and ventilators will be on April 21, when the state’s daily patient deaths could reach 240, a University of Washington model predicts. Local public health officials say Southwest Florida’s peak may lag a week or two, providing them crucially needed extra time to prepare. Lee Health, the region’s largest hospital system, and NCH Healthcare System, the largest hospital operator in Collier County, have consistently reported since the pandemic’s outbreak that they have enough supplies and beds to weather what’s coming. And though roughly 200 medical staffers in the two health systems are quarantined on any given day — most as a precaution — because of exposure to the coronavirus, the hospital systems say they have plenty of staff. Larry Antonucci, president and CEO of the publicly operated Lee Health, said Thursday in an exclusive interview that he’s hopeful that social distancing and stay-at-home orders are starting to slow the number of infections and deaths. He accurately predicted that Lee County’s rate would double from last week to roughly 500 cases this week. “I don’t think we’ll see the doubling that we saw,” he said. “But, again, it depends on how the community responds and how the community is maintaining social distancing.” Lee Health Preside and CEO Larry Antonucci, left, speaks at a press conference about COVID-19 cases and preparedness at Gulf Coast Hospital on Saturday, March 7, 2020. Given this uncertainty, Antonucci said it’s difficult to predict what […]
