Ron DeSantis doubled down Tuesday as the state again broke its record for COVID-19 hospitalizations, insisting that the spike will soon abate and that he will not impose any business restrictions or mask mandates. With the much more contagious delta variant now spreading exponentially, Florida had 11,515 hospitalized patients Tuesday, breaking last year's record for the third straight day. A year ago, Florida was averaging about 180 COVID-19 deaths per day during an early August spike, but last week averaged 58 per day. Treating COVID-19 patients is labour intensive and many Florida hospitals are facing staffing shortages. The Florida counties with the lowest vaccination rates and some of the highest per-capita hospitalizations are heavily Republican.

Source: CBC News August 03, 2021 16:28 UTC