UF Health-The Villages Hospital is nearly at capacity due to the spread of COVID-19.
“We’ve seen a tremendous increase to the point that just about every available room in the hospital is being used,” said Villager Gary Kadow, a chaplain at the hospital who also serves on the foundation board. “We have quite a few people on ventilators.”
He made the remarks Friday at the Community Development District 5 Board of Supervisors meeting. He serves as the board’s chairman.
Kadow said the Delta Variant is spreading like Chicken Pox. And it’s the unvaccinated members of the public who are being infected.
“A very, very high percentage (of the people admitted at the hospital) have not had the vaccine. If there is something that can help, I don’t know why you wouldn’t take advantage of it,” Kadow said.
Fellow CDD 5 Supervisor Reed Panos, who spent his career as a surgeon, offered a dire warning.
“There will be more. We are not looking at the end of this for many years. It’s a travesty,” he said.
Meanwhile, Community Development District 8 Supervisor Phil Walker also indicated that the unvaccinated are putting themselves at risk.
He relayed the story of an unvaccinated couple in their 40s who caught COVID-19 when their children brought it home.
“We are in a bubble here in more ways than one,” Walker said.
