Florida hospitals face ICU bed shortage as state passes 300,000 COVID-19 cases

[TomCADem]

Source: NBC News

Florida was running out of ICU beds at numerous hospitals Wednesday as COVID-19 cases continued to pile up by the tens of thousands and the Trump administration appeared powerless to stop it.

In Oklahoma, Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican who caught flak for posting a photo of himself eating with his kids in a crowded restaurant while COVID-19 was spreading through his state, announced Wednesday that he had tested positive for the virus.

The 67,507 new cases reported across the country Tuesday was the second highest daily number since the start of the pandemic, and states like Wisconsin (4,407), Nevada (1,104), Oklahoma (993) and Alaska (360) shattered their previous records for numbers of cases recorded in a single day.

The death toll nationwide as of Wednesday morning was 137,403 and climbing, with 3,454,352 cases reported, according to the latest NBC News tally.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/florida-hospitals-face-icu-bed-shortage-state-passes-300-000-n1233899

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I guess you can see why Republicans are going through such extraordinary lengths to hide data regarding the impact of the pandemic.

[Phoenix61]

1. Hospitals are still reporting to the state

health departments though aren’t they?

[TomCADem]

2. Miami Herald: Why does DeSantis continue to hide COVID-19 data? Florida already looks like a loser

https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/article244130112.html

Fighting COVID-19 has been hard enough, but fighting the state for a straight answer on numbers to gauge the past and current spike of new cases has been utterly exhausting. Floridians deserve better.

The latest battle is getting Gov. DeSantis’ office to release complete daily hospitalization data for all 67 counties. It’s amazing that this is not routine already.

Other elected officials have made their numbers public. In April, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez ordered hospitals in the county to report daily patient admissions, ICU capacity and ventilator inventory.

[C Moon]

3. Yes. It's all so obvious. They can see it's only getting worse.

I think they believed summer would kill the virus.
Now they are scrambling to cover their asses.

[flibbitygiblets]

4. How long can DeSantis pretend the massive spike is simply a "blip"?

When hospitals are overburdened to the point they can't care for patients and bodies are stacking up, it's going to be right there for the world to see. Hiding it or dismissing it as a fluke isn't going to work--can't he really not see what's coming?