40% of new hospitalizations from COVID in the U.S. have been reported in Texas and Florida.
White House COVID coordinator Jeff Zients said eight states account for 51% of the total hospitalizations in the country, with the other six states being Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Nevada.
“In the past week, Florida has had more COVID cases than all 30 states with the lowest case rates combined,” Zients said.
Breward County leads the nation in hospitalizations with over 1,800 new admissions, Harris Country, Texas was second, followed by Miami-Dade County.
Almost all who are being hospitalized are unvaccinated, and Florida and Texas are both below the national average, with 49.8% and 44.7%, respectively.
People who are vaccinated against COVID-19 rarely contract the viral infection, and those who do show mild or no symptoms and usually do not require hospitalization.
“We realize very, very well that the data is absolute,” Dr. O’Neil Pyke, chief medical officer at Jackson North Medical Center, said. “The folks who are actually vaccinated are being protected to the tune of 90-plus percent. The folks who are unvaccinated continue to fill the hospitals.”
The delta variant has spread rapidly across South Florida, and shattered single-day records five times in the past two weeks and Florida’s COVID hospitalizations have also broken daily records for 11 days straight.
"Let’s get this pandemic under control before we start acting like nothing is going on," CDC Director Dr. Anthony Fauci said. "What happens if you allow the virus to freely circulate, there's a tenant that everybody knows in Virology. A virus will not mutate unless you allow it to replicate. So if you allow the virus to freely circulate and not try and stop it sooner or later there is a likelihood that you will get another variant that could, I'm not saying it will, that could be more problematic than the delta.”
Testing in Miami-Dade county continues to grow by up to 10 percent at most sites, but Dr. Fauci believes more people will get the vaccine once it has full FDA approval.
"It is as we've said a pandemic and an outbreak of the unvaccinated," Fauci said. "If you are vaccinated you are very well protected against getting infected."
There are currently seven sites in Broward specifically for testing and 28 testing sites in Miami Dade and the County is looking to add more.
LIV is offering free COVID-19 vaccines!
The Miami club set up pop-up COVID vaccine sites at LIV and club Story to entice the young that is filling up Florida hospitals with the delta variant.
“We are excited, we want to stay open, and we know the only way to make that happen is if people get vaccinated, so we want to make it as accessible as possible.” Owner David Grutman, the king of South Beach’s night life scene said.
He partnered with CDR Health, to offer free shots outside the clubs, while further north in West Palm Beach, Clematis Social club owner Cleve Mash is waiving door charges for the fully vaccinated and offering $200 bonuses to workers who can prove their vaccine status.
The overwhelming majority of COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Florida are unvaccinated, but of the more than 10.5 million fully vaccinated Floridians, 0.019% are in a Florida hospital with COVID-19.
Gov. Ron DeSantis has encouraged vaccinations, but repeatedly stressed he will not impose statewide mask mandates or business lockdowns.