Florida breaks record in cases, hospitalizations
Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare's chief communications officer sounded the alarm Sunday on coronavirus hospitalizations as the hospital reached 70 patients in its COVID-19 unit — an increase of 11 in just two days since Friday and the highest the hospital has seen since the start of the pandemic in early 2020.
"This is the most we've ever had," said Stephanie Derzypolski, adding that their previous highest number of hospitalizations was 51.
The state on Sunday broke its record for current hospitalizations, a day after Florida recorded the most daily cases since the start of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, 10,207 people in Florida are hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to data reported to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. The previous record of 10,170 hospitalizations was from July 23, 2020, more than a half-year before vaccinations started becoming widespread, according to the Florida Hospital Association. Florida leads the nation in per capita hospitalizations for COVID-19.