In the wake of Governor Ron DeSantis’s ban on mask and vaccine mandates, the state of Florida is setting new records in COVID deaths as it leads the nation in that grim category.
Florida averaged 23,314 new known cases over the weekend, a rate that sits 30% higher than the state’s previous peak seven months ago, according to the New York Times database.
Hospitals in the state are feeling the pinch, getting strained to their limits as COVID hospitalizations have nearly tripled since July. Over 17,000 people are hospitalized statewide.
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The situation led to a news conference Monday in Palm Beach County where medical workers practically begged the unvaccinated residents of the state to get the COVID shot. "We are exhausted," said Dr. Rupesh Dharia, an internal medicine specialist. "Our patience and resources are running low."
The vaccination rate for Florida is at 52% but the hot spots have registered vaccination rates under 30%. Meanwhile, the daily death rate has increased by 613% over the last week, according to data compiled by The Washington Post.
The Delta variant of the coronavirus has preyed on a much younger crowd than the original strain, with patients in the 40-59 age range flooding hospitals for COVID care and dying of the virus.
In spite of these numbers, DeSantis has doubled down on his edicts and touted the state’s “great success” treating the virus with monoclonal antibodies on Fox News Wednesday while attacking President Joe Biden.
“You know, he said he was going to end covid. He hasn’t done that,” DeSantis told Fox News host Jesse Watters. “At the end of the day, he is trying to find a way to distract from the failures of his presidency.”
A lawsuit over DeSantis’s mask mandate ban in schools should be decided in the next few days. Ten of Florida’s largest school districts have directly defied the ban – and DeSantis’s subsequent threats towards schools who do so – by approving mask mandates for their schools, affecting more than half of the state’s students.
“Those school districts are violating state law and they are overriding parents’ judgment on this,” DeSantis said at a press conference covering the ban. “If these entities are going to violate state law and take away parents’ rights, obviously the way it works, there are consequences for that and there will continue to be more.”
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