August 21, 2021
THE DESANTIS FLU:
Florida's COVID surge 'a crisis of unprecedented proportions,' doctor says; school districts battle for masks. (Jeanine Santucci & Christine Fernando, 8/21/21, USA TODAY)
Florida became the third state in the U.S. to reach 3 million cases of COVID-19, a total surpassed by only 15 countries in the world.Cases in the state fell very slightly this week, with 150,740 compared to 151,764 last week, but deaths were on the rise. The state saw 1,486 deaths this week compared to 1,071 the week before. Florida reported an all-time death record, with 1,486 deaths in the past week - nearly 15% above the previous record of 1,296 deaths in a week of January.Northeast Florida is bearing the brunt of the state's COVID surge, with Baptist Health's five hospitals in the area seeing more than double the number of patients with COVID they saw at the previous peak of the pandemic last summer."Jacksonville is kind of the epicenter of this. They had one of the lowest vaccination rates going into July and that has probably really came back to bite them," Justin Senior, CEO of the Florida Safety Net Hospital Alliance, told the Associated Press.
Posted by Orrin Judd at August 21, 2021 6:33 PM