Florida hospital system says 50% of its COVID patients are mainly there for other reasons

Florida hospital system says 50% of its COVID patients are mainly there for other reasons The nationwide picture is unclear, but many of those in COVID-19 hospitalization statistics are not there primarily because of the coronavirus. YahooNews

About half of the patients listed as being in the hospital with COVID-19 were admitted for "non-COVID reasons," a health authority in Florida said.

"Jackson Health System hospitals currently have 439 patients who have tested positive for COVID-19," the Jackson Health System said in a tweet on Monday.

"Of those, 220 patients — or 50% — are admitted to the hospital primarily for non-COVID reasons."

The post was a relatively rare snapshot of the prevalence of so-called incidental COVID in the US.

Anthony Fauci, the White House chief medical advisor, recently warned that COVID-19 hospitalization data should be taken with a grain of salt, Insider previously reported.

He said in a Wednesday interview that focused on admissions in children, that some would be admitted for "a broken leg, or appendicitis, or something like that," and only later turn out to have COVID-19.

COVID-19 cases like that can make up a substantial proportion of hospital admissions.

These made up about a third of the 8,321 COVID-positive cases in England on December 28, according to data from the UK National Health Service.

In separate press conferences on Monday, New York Gov. Katy Hochul and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis warned that incidental cases could be making up a good proportion of hospitalized cases their states.

"Beginning tomorrow, we're going to be asking all hospitals to break out for us how many people are being hospitalized because of COVID symptoms [and] how many people … happen to be testing positive," Hochul said. ...