CLEARWATER, Fla. (WFLA) – The recent spike in new COVID cases is causing many people to have questions, so 8 On Your Side took those questions to the health experts.
Dr. Laura Arline is BayCare’s Chief Quality Officer. She meets with a team of doctors daily to discuss all things coronavirus-related.
Arline answered the following viewer questions about COVID-19.
Q: Is the spike due to more people getting tested and test results coming back faster?
A: “It is true that more people are getting tested and that some tests are coming back faster, but really the percent of the tests that are positive are increasing,” Arline said.
Q: Are hospitalizations on the rise as well?
A: “Hospitalizations are still occurring, but we are finding is the group of folks contracting the virus now are not so much the elderly patients, but people from 18-35 getting sick.”
Arline also emphasized that about 160 vaccines are being tested right now to treat COVID-19. There isn’t a definitive date on when a vaccine will be released. She says optimists are hoping by the end of 2020.
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