Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at the American Legislative Exchange Council in Salt Lake City, Wednesday, July 28, 2021. Rick Bowmer/AP Photo Florida Covid hospitalizations shattered record as DeSantis downplays threatsTALLAHASSEE Florida's largest hospital association head warned that the state's record-breaking increase in Covid hospitalizations is unprecedented. Ron DeSantis downplays this spike.On Monday, the Florida Hospital Association reported 10,389 Covid-19 hospitalizations. This is the highest number of such hospitalizations in Florida during the pandemic. This comes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that Friday's state had recorded more than 21,000 coronavirus cases. This was Florida's highest single-day total, with approximately one to five new cases nationwide.About 95 percent are not vaccinated. Mary Mayhew (President and CEO of Florida Hospital Association) said that the Delta strain is spreading through Florida and infecting young people.Mayhew stated that 25-year olds and 30-year-olds must be convinced that this is life-threatening. This is not what they saw, and it's not what we saw last year.Public health officials and elected officials in Florida have been pressing the DeSantis administration for more aggressive steps to control the coronavirus epidemic. DeSantis has maintained a strict no mandate approach to the virus. He even issued an executive order prohibiting school districts from using masks in K-12 schools. DeSantis also pledged to combat any municipalities or cities that attempt to impose Covid restrictions, such as mask mandates or lockdowns.The Covid cases among the younger population are a sign of Governor DeSantis's success in getting the elderly vaccinated. Over 85 percent of Florida's 65-year-olds have been fully vaccinated. About 52 percent of Florida's population are fully vaccinated.Because we are so successful in vaccinating seniors, cases and hospitalizations have moved to younger people. Christina Pushaw, DeSantis press secretary, stated that 6 percent of all new infections occurred last month among those who were vaccinated. We must keep moving forward with our efforts to increase vaccination rates for all age groups.On Sunday night, Pushaw fought with journalists on Twitter about the rise in Covid hospitalizations at Tallahassee's largest hospital, Tallahassee Memorial Hospital. Pushaw made a comment about the Democratic-leaning city and asked why so many people were not vaccinated despite a tweet from Stephanie Derzypolski, chief communications officer at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, stating that this was the highest vaccination rate we have ever seen.Pushaw has since deleted all the tweets.Pushaw, the Florida agency that oversees the state's Medicaid program and licenses health care facilities attempted to counter Mayhews claims that Florida hospitals are overflowing.Tiffany Vause, deputy chief-of-staff for the Agency for Health Care Administration stated that 82% of the state's inpatient beds are currently in use and that only 18% of these are Covid-19 related. Inpatient beds were at their highest in July 2020 when Covid-19 hospitalizations reached their peak. Only 79 percent of these beds were still in use. 27 percent of those beds were occupied by Covid-19 residents.DeSantis has called on all Floridians, and Florida has now fully vaccinated 10,000,000 people, according to state records. Another 98,696 were fully vaccinated last Wednesday, and another 235,368 received the first doses. This is a continuation of recent weeks. Last week's 334,064 doses were up 40% compared to the first week in July.However, the state is moving in the wrong direction for almost every other measurable Covid-19 category. Florida's 110,477 new cases last week was nearly 600% more than the 15,998 cases that were reported four weeks ago. The statewide positivity rate has increased from 5.3 percent to 18.1 percent in the last month.Florida and DeSantis have been back in the national spotlight thanks to the Covid-19 revival. DeSantis' 2022 rivals have been attacking him for what they call a failure to respond over the past month.Nikki Fried (Democratic Agriculture Commissioner) is running against DeSantis to the governorship. DeSantis had stopped holding daily Covid-19 briefings. She reiterated Monday that DeSantis should hold daily briefings and do more to promote pop up vaccine sites. DeSantis, who has reaffirmed his opposition to the idea, was also asked by her to provide incentives to encourage people to get their shots. Orange County Public Schools will offer $200 to any staff members who have proof of vaccination.Fried said Fried that Fried is doing the exact opposite and not speaking about it. Fried said that Fried's office needed to fill the daily void.She also attacked DeSanti's recent efforts to stop schools from imposing mandates for masks, which included the signing of the executive order last week.She said, "It's not as bad this year as it was at the peak of the pandemic." "Things have become the most difficult in this state since the pandemic. Florida is now the country's leader per capita in hospitalizations."Charlie Crist, a Democratic Representative from Florida, who is also challenging DeSantis last week, said that DeSantis had blood on his hands.
