Sarasota Memorial Hospital reaches 500 COVID-19 deaths as hospitalizations fall

Sarasota Memorial Hospital reached 500 COVID-19 deaths Thursday as the impact of the fading delta wave of the pandemic continues to accumulate.

The vast majority – 84% – of the COVID-19 deaths since the end of June were unvaccinated patients, the hospital reported.

COVID-19 hospitalizations are plummeting across Florida and in Sarasota and Manatee counties. The strain on the state’s health care system has eased significantly compared to the summer.

Sarasota Memorial almost is back to normal operations after suspending elective surgeries and nearly doubling the size of its intensive care unit to handle the crush of COVID-19 patients.

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But the staggering death toll in recent months highlights how severe this wave of infections has been, especially among the unvaccinated.

Sarasota Memorial recorded 254 COVID-19 deaths through June 30, a figure that has nearly doubled over the last three and a half months.

That means the hospital recorded nearly the same amount of COVID-19 deaths in the last three and a half months as it did in the previous 16 months, going back to when the first COVID-19 case was discovered in Florida. 

“It’s important to remember that we are talking about more than numbers,” said Sarasota Memorial President and CEO David Verinder. “These are people we care for, and care about, and we need to do everything we can to protect them and each other.”

Verinder’s own father-in-law contracted COVID-19 and died in a COVID overflow unit at Sarasota Memorial in August.

Every COVID-19 death is a sad reminder of the toll the pandemic is taking on families, friends and colleagues, Verinder said.

Hospital leaders are encouraging the public to get vaccinated. Currently 84% of the COVID-19 patients at the hospital are unvaccinated.

Out of the 246 people who have died of COVID-19 at Sarasota Memorial since June 30, 207 of them were unvaccinated. The youngest person to die of COVID-19 at the hospital since the beginning of the pandemic was 23 and the oldest was 102. The average age of those who died is 73.

There have been four patients younger than 30 and 127 patients younger than 65 who died of COVID-19 at Sarasota Memorial since the beginning of the pandemic.

September was the worst month for COVID-19 deaths at Sarasota Memorial during the delta wave, with 141 patients dying of the disease. There were 94 COVID-19 deaths at Sarasota Memorial in August. Those two months accounted for 96% of the COVID-19 at the hospital since June 30.

Deaths dropped off dramatically in October, with just seven patients dying of COVID-19 at the hospital so far this month.

Sarasota Memorial had 61 COVID-19 patients Thursday, down from a high of 284 on Aug. 22.

While Sarasota Memorial has resumed elective surgeries, the hospital’s ICU still is operating at an expanded capacity to handle a larger than normal number of critically ill patients. There are 30 COVID-19 patients in the ICU.

Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that Sarasota County had 1,374 COVID-19 deaths through Oct. 9, while Manatee County had 1,054.

The combined 2,428 deaths is a 58% increase from June 3, when the state reported 1,533 COVID-19 deaths in the two counties.