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TAMPA, Florida – As cases of the novel coronavirus increase daily in Florida, state agencies and independent organizations have once again started reporting the number of cases, hospitalizations and daily deaths in an effort to educate the public about the risk of ‘catch the disease and get seriously ill.
The Florida Hospital Association said on Friday that the state had reported 22,783 cases of COVID-19 detected as of Thursday, August 5, and as of Friday afternoon 12,864 patients had been hospitalized – both figures setting records for the state. since the start of the pandemic.
Florida also reported that 199 more people have died from the virus, bringing the total number of deaths from COVID-19 in the state to 39,602, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Florida has been hit hard in recent weeks by a wave caused by the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus. The variant posed a particular threat to unvaccinated people.
A Florida Hospital Association survey of hospitals indicated that 60% expect staff shortages next week. Additionally, 23% said they will need to expand their patient care areas next week to parts of their facilities that are not currently in use for care.
Hospitals statewide have been forced to cancel elective surgeries, and some facilities have limited visits as the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 has increased.
RELATED: Risk of hospitalization, death less than 0.01% for people fully vaccinated, according to data
The state of Florida stopped publishing daily statistics on COVID-19 in June under the leadership of Governor Ron DeSantis. The Florida Department of Health now issues updates once a week on Fridays. However, the FHA and CDC continue to release data on a daily basis.
There remains no source of recovered data on COVID-19 patients, nor reliable state-wide information on breakthrough cases.
Editor’s note: The number of new cases and deaths reported each day does not necessarily reflect the day the case was confirmed. Statistics for today and previous days will likely change in the future as the state examines more cases and updates retroactive data.
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