The trend for new COVID-19 cases for Osceola has slowed — only one day in the past six has had more than 12 cases, and it took more than 9 days for the count to go from 300 to 400, now at 409.
But the count to watch, now that it is included in Osceola County’s new coronavirus dashboard, is the healthcare capacity and the number of available hospital beds. If the number of cases spikes, hospitals could be put under stress, but as of now it appears the local health care situation is under control. As of Sunday evening, 343 of Osceola’s 1,027 hospital beds are staffed and available, about 33 percent of the stock. There are 57 ICU beds available across the county.
These numbers have remained pretty stable since the county debuted the dashboard with this important information Friday afternoon. Also remaining fairly stable is the number of COVID 19-related hospitalizations, which is at 119 as of Sunday morning, just 12 more than it was on Wednesday morning.
The Florida Department of Health reported about 700 new cases and 16 deaths Sunday; those tallies are now at 26,314 and 774 respectively, with 5 deaths in Osceola County, with the first coming March 31.
