Lee Health resumes all elective surgeries; COVID hospitalizations drop below 200

Lee Health reports 197 COVID-19 patients being treated as of Monday morning, with 48 new admissions since Friday. The health system is also resuming elective surgeries that require an overnight hospital stay.

• As of Monday morning, there are 197 COVID-19 patients isolated in Lee Health hospitals (inpatient).
• Of those patients, 6 of them are children being treated at Golisano Children’s Hospital of Southwest Florida.
• Since Friday, there were 48 new COVID-19 hospital admissions and 61 COVID-19 discharges.
• 60% of ventilators and 15% of ICU rooms are available for use. There are 40 COVID-19 patients on ventilators and 56 in the intensive care unit.
• On Monday morning, hospital census was at 82% of staffed operational bed capacity.
• Since the start of the pandemic, 1,147 patients have died at Lee Health hospitals to COVID-19, including 5 on Sunday.

Lee Health President and CEO Dr. Larry Antonucci also announced the resumption of elective surgeries requiring an overnight hospital stay.

“Starting today Lee Health is pleased to announce that we are resuming elective surgeries that require an overnight hospital stay. We paused these surgeries on Aug. 4 for the safety of our community and to help preserve resources as we treated hundreds of patients for COVID-19,” he said. “While the pandemic is still threatening our community, COVID-19 hospitalizations have reached a level where we can safely restart elective procedures. I thank all of our patients for their understanding as their non-life-threatening surgeries were temporarily delayed. The best thing our community can do to help prevent further COVID-19 surges is to get vaccinated today.”

Lee Health offers COVID-19 vaccines for anyone 12 and older at its Community Vaccination Clinic, located inside Gulf Coast Medical Center. It’s open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 7:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. and there is no cost for the vaccine.”