About 86% of the 56,172 inpatient hospital beds in Florida were occupied Wednesday as the state continues to struggle with a surge in COVID-19 cases, according to data updated by the federal Department of Health and Human Services.
Of the 48,414 beds in use, 15,449 were occupied by patients with COVID-19, the data reported by hospitals show. Meanwhile, 41 hospitals across the state reported to the federal government that they had critical staffing shortages Wednesday morning. Also, 56 hospitals reported that they expected to face critical staffing shortages within the next week.
The increases in hospitalized patients have been caused by the highly contagious delta variant of the coronavirus sweeping across the state. Florida had a reported 24,753 new cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, according to data posted Wednesday on the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. It had a seven-day “moving” average of 21,156 new cases.
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