Florida virus cases soar, hospitals near last summer's peak

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MIAMI – Hospital admissions of coronavirus patients proceed to soar successful Florida with astatine slightest 2 areas successful the authorities surpassing the erstwhile peaks of past summer's surge, prompting calls by section officials for the politician to state an emergency.

A ample infirmary strategy successful Jacksonville said its hospitals were astatine maximum capacity, its exigency centers besides astatine a captious constituent arsenic the authorities grappled with the caller and much infectious delta variant of the COVID-19 virus.

In Brevard County, 2 hospitals began mounting up attraction tents astatine its exigency departments. And astatine a Fort Lauderdale park, a agelong enactment of cars snaked astir a investigating site, recalling the archetypal weeks of the pandemic past year.

Florida hospitals reported much than 8,900 patients with COVID-19 connected Thursday, according to information from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Florida Hospital Association said the authorities peaked astatine 10,179 cases past July.

The diligent fig connected Thursday was 5 times higher than a period ago, and it rapidly climbed from astir 5,500 successful conscionable 1 week.

"What’s bonzer is the velocity astatine which we are presently seeing caller cases,” said Dr. Vincent Hsu, enforcement manager of corruption prevention and infirmary epidemiologist astatine AdventHealth successful Orlando. “The slope is beauteous steep, and we haven’t seen the extremity of it. This is inactive coming.”

AdventHealth said Thursday it had reached a caller precocious connected Thursday since the pandemic began with astir 1,000 COVID-19 hospitalized patients crossed its strategy successful cardinal Florida. Twelve hospitals successful the authorities are reporting captious staffing shortages to the national government.

The authorities reported to the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention an further 17,500 cases — making 1 5th of the nationalist caller caseload — and 56 caller deaths, raising the full decease toll for the authorities to astir 38,900.

The accelerated emergence successful hospitalizations and cases has prompted officials successful Miami-Dade and Orlando to contented new orders requiring masks astatine indoor region buildings. The politician of Orange County, location to Walt Disney World, is forcing each nonunion region employees to get vaccinated by August.

And Walt Disney World besides announced this week that it would again beryllium requiring the usage of masks indoors.

Just 48 percent of the state’s colonisation is afloat vaccinated, and hospitals accidental the immense bulk of the patients with COVID-19 are unvaccinated.

Despite calls for him to state an emergency, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has vowed not to reinstate immoderate pandemic restrictions. In aboriginal June the authorities stopped providing regular figures of cases and deaths, switching to play reports.

He signed a instrumentality successful May a measurement that invalidated section COVID-19 orders and gave him powerfulness to nullify aboriginal ones.

On Wednesday, the politician mocked caller national guidelines recommending usage of masks adjacent for those vaccinated against COVID-19. He besides took purpose astatine Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's apical infectious illness specialist, who precocious said the U.S. is successful an “unnecessary predicament" of soaring cases fueled by unvaccinated Americans and the virulent delta variant.

DeSantis said Florida would “choose state implicit Fauci-ism."

“I deliberation it’s precise important we say, unequivocally, ‘No to lockdowns, nary to schoolhouse closures, nary to restrictions, nary to mandates,’” DeSantis said. “We’ll beryllium holding the line. We volition not backmost down.”

His words drew enthusiastic applause during his quality successful Salt Lake City, Utah, earlier the American Legislative Exchange Council, a radical that pushes blimpish policies successful Republican-controlled authorities legislatures.

DeSantis said helium opposes those measures due to the fact that they were ineffective and “had catastrophic consequences" for the economy.

The governor's stance against lockdowns, disguise mandates and vaccine passports is simply a cardinal constituent of his reelection campaign. The run is selling koozies with the operation “How the hellhole americium I going to portion a brew with a disguise on?” and T-shirts reading: “Don’t Fauci My Florida.”

Charlie Crist, a Democrat challenging DeSantis adjacent year, condemned his code successful Utah successful a connection sent Thursday. Crist served arsenic a Republican politician from 2007 to 2011, earlier joining the Democratic party. He has served successful the U.S. House since 2017.

“Our hospitals are being overrun by sick patients, families are losing their loved ones, and our children are facing different hard and confusing schoolhouse year. But where’s Governor DeSantis? He’s profiting from selling merchandise that demonizes our nation’s apical doctor" helium said.

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