Delta variant spreads across Florida: surgeries suspended, hospitalizations record high

The emergence of the Delta variant made Florida at the worst times of the pandemic. When its residents began to relax and thought life was slowly returning to normal, the southern state of the United States scored for the third day in a row a hospitalization register when posting 12 888 entries.

Regarding the cases, this Thursday 20,133 were reported, the second biggest record since the start of the emergency.

As for the deaths, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, for its acronym in English) they were recorded 84 deaths by the Covid-19.

Thus, Florida is responsible for 22% of infections across the country. The state’s average of new cases in seven days reached 18,120 on Wednesday

As of Wednesday, the district had recorded 12,408 coronavirus admissions to its health facilities. The figure marked a record that was broken on Thursday by 12,888 new hospitalizations, according to figures reported by state medical centers to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Surgeries are suspended

The sudden spike in new cases and hospitalizations in the state has led some hospitals, including the Broward County Memorial Healthcare System, to temporarily suspend operating room operations in order to have enough staff and beds, reported the Miami Herald.

According to official figures, 2577 people they stayed in Intensive care units (ICU) in the various hospitals of the state, which represents about 40% of occupancy.

The White House reported Thursday that higher cases of infections have occurred in states with fewer immunized people.

According to federal data, the 48.8% of Florida’s population is completely vaccinated. That’s about 10.5 million people. However, the vaccination campaign is continuing strongly because this number is considered low not yet achieved the long-awaited collective immunity.

Public health experts and frontline healthcare workers have warned that the vast majority of people hospitalized in recent days are not vaccinated.

Vaccination of municipal officers

In this context of the evolution of coronavirus cases, the mayor of Miami-Dade, Cava Daniella Levine, announced this Thursday that all county employees, Florida’s largest and hardest hit by the pandemic, must show proof of vaccination or undergo weekly testing from the 16th of this month.

“Our community has endured too much. We have experienced more than enough tragedies and we have seen many of our families suffer. By getting vaccinated we can prevent more pain, we can prevent losing more neighbors, colleagues and friends, ”Levine Cava said at a press conference.

Meanwhile, Carlos Migoya, executive director of Jackson Health System (the public hospital system Miami-Dade), said all your employees, whether students or doctors, must be vaccinated before August 23.

Currently, 60% of Jackson’s employees are vaccinated, but according to Migoya the indicator is “too low”.