Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis held a roundtable discussion with some of the state's hospital's CEOs Wednesday amid record COVID-19 hospitalizations.
Among the CEOs participating in the Zoom roundtable with DeSantis were Carlos Migoya, with Jackson Health System in Miami, and Shane Strum, with North Broward Hospital District.
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With the much more contagious delta variant now spreading exponentially, Florida hit 11,515 hospitalized patients Tuesday, breaking last year's record for the third straight day and up from just 1,000 in mid-June.
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DeSantis said he expects hospitalizations to drop in the next couple weeks, asserting that the spike is seasonal as Floridians spend more time together indoors to escape the summer heat and humidity.
Dr. O’Neil Pyke, chief medical officer at Jackson North Medical Center in Miami, said many Florida hospitals are facing staffing shortages. Hospitals also report putting emergency room patients in beds in hallways, and some are again banning visitors or postponing elective surgeries.
