At Least 56 Florida Hospital ICUs Have Hit Capacity as Coronavirus Cases Soar


As Florida continues to break records for their number of new coronavirus cases, at least 56 hospitals in the state have reached capacity in their intensive care units.

Three months after Florida and the rest of the U.S. watched New York City struggle to manage their hospitalizations at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sunshine State has nearly surpassed New York’s record for most new COVID-19 infections in one day, and is now seeing a similar rise in hospitalizations.

Florida’s Agency for Health Care Administration reported Tuesday that at least 56 hospitals are out of space in their ICUs, and another 35 hospitals have 10 percent availability or less, according to CNN.

Florida now has the third-highest case total of the pandemic, after New York and California, with 213,786 as of Wednesday, according to The New York Times’ database. At least 3,840 people have died from COVID-19.

The state hit its highest total for new daily cases on July 4 with 11,458.

Still, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has said that the state will not be reeling in its efforts to reopen the economy.

“We're not going back, closing things,” he said on June 30. “I don't think that that's really what's driving it. People going to a business is not what's driving it. I think when you see the younger folks — I think a lot of it is more just social interactions, so that's natural.”

In his remarks a week ago, DeSantis claimed that “hospitals still have a lot of capacity.”

DeSantis did suspend alcohol consumption within bars on June 26, but he has resisted a state-wide mask mandate, instead leaving the decision up to individual counties.

As of Wednesday, more than 3,014,100 people in the U.S. have tested positive for COVID-19, and at least 131,329 people have died, according to the Times.

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