Florida sets new daily COVID-19 record

[struggle4progress]

By NBC 6 • Published 6 hours ago • Updated 52 mins ago

Florida has once again set a daily record for COVID-19 cases, with 76,887 reported on Friday.

The cases are more than 1,000 over the previous record of 75,732 that was set on Dec. 30 ...

Hospitalizations in the state continued to rise Friday, with 8,914 inpatient beds in use for COVID-19, accounting for about 15.46% of the state's total based on 264 hospitals reporting, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That number was 8,406 on Thurssday.

Another 1,015 intensive care unit beds were in use for COVID-19 Friday, about 16.19% of the state's total based on 270 hospitals reporting, according to HHS ...

https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/florida-sets-new-daily-covid-19-case-record-with-76887-on-friday/2656855/

[struggle4progress]

1. FL nears 9,000 hospitalizations for COVID; CDC notes increase among children

BY: ISSAC MORGAN - JANUARY 7, 2022 5:28 PM

... In Florida, the number of people hospitalized continues to increase, as well, according to data reported Friday by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. That report shows 8,914 inpatient beds in use for COVID, up from 8,062 hospitalizations reported by the Florida Hospital Association on Thursday.

The FHA on Friday reported that 204 children were hospitalized with COVID, an increase of 90.6 percent over the previous week and an increase of 365.6 percent over the past two weeks.

Rochelle Walensky, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, announced that pediatric hospitalizations are at an all-time high, adding that “this is the highest number of pediatric hospitalizations we have seen throughout this pandemic” ...

https://floridaphoenix.com/2022/01/07/fl-nears-9000-hospitalizations-for-covid-cdc-notes-increase-among-children/

[captain queeg]

2. Strange that no one ever dies there

at least they don’t report them

[struggle4progress]

3. Florida health department says no need to test for COVID-19 if asymptomatic

By Kirby Wilson
Published Yesterday
Updated Yesterday

... Thomas Unnasch, a distinguished professor at the University of South Florida’s College of Public Health, said the state’s approach would make sense but for one key detail: There are not enough effective treatments to go around right now to help vulnerable people infected with COVID-19.

Unnasch noted a study that showed two key types of monoclonal antibodies, manufactured by Regeneron and Eli Lilly, are not effective against the omicron variant of the virus ...

Thomas Hladish, a research scientist at the University of Florida’s Emerging Pathogens Institute, said encouraging asymptomatic Floridians not to be tested may also come with broader public health consequences ...

“There may not be much clinical benefit to testing asymptomatic people because you don’t need to treat those individuals,” Hladish said. “But there is a great deal of public health benefit to knowing if people without symptoms are infected because we know that a lot of transmission happens from asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic people” ...

https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2022/01/06/no-need-to-test-for-covid-19-if-asymptomatic-florida-health-department-says/

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4. Up to 1 million COVID-19 test kits expired in Florida

by LENA SALZBANK, WPEC Staff
Friday, January 7th 2022

... On Thursday in West Palm Beach, Division of Emergency Manager Director Kevin Guthrie, confirmed that between 800,000 and 1 million state COVID-19 tests had recently expired ...

https://local12.com/news/nation-world/up-to-1-million-covid-19-test-kits-expired-in-florida-01-07-2022

[SWBTATTReg]

9. And the idiot governor tried to blame federal authorities for the lapses that caused the tests to

expire. Idiot will never ever blame himself but always others.

[dweller]

5. If only they had access to

a million covid test to distribute to the citizens free of charge …




✌🏻

[struggle4progress]

6. Questions continue about expired COVID tests

MIAMI – As South Floridians waited in hours-long testing lines ahead of the Christmas holiday, nearly a million tests were sitting in a state warehouse.

Florida’s director of emergency management said it was between 800,000 and 1 million rapid test kits that have since expired.

“We received a three-month extension on those test kits, which ended up expiring between Dec. 26th and Dec. 30th,” Kevin Guthrie said. “We tried to give them out beforehand, but there was no demand for it.”

Yet the kits expired after a Dec. 21 letter penned by Miami-Dade County’s mayor to the state’s surgeon general asking “that all possible tests be directed to Miami-Dade County to meet the growing demand for testing in our community” ...

https://www.local10.com/news/local/2022/01/07/questions-continue-about-expired-covid-tests-in-florida/

[struggle4progress]

7. Florida's governor says 'lack of demand' to blame for test kits expiring

By: Matt PapaycikPosted at 11:22 AM, Jan 07, 2022 and last updated 11:24 AM, Jan 07, 2022

LAKE BUTLER, Fla. — Florida's governor said Friday a "lack of demand" is to blame after the state allowed up to 1 million COVID-19 rapid test kits to expire in December.

... testing sites throughout Florida are currently dealing with an overwhelming crunch of people looking to get screened for COVID-19 because of the emergence of the highly contagious omicron variant ...

... testing centers throughout Florida are facing hours-long wait times and test kits are nearly impossible to find at local pharmacies ...

https://www.wptv.com/coronavirus/lack-of-demand-to-blame-for-up-to-1-million-covid-19-test-kits-expiring-floridas-governor-says

[struggle4progress]

8. How to spot fake testing sites popping up across Florida

Coronavirus cases still surging in Florida – and so are the number of scammers.

https://www.wogx.com/video/1020720

[struggle4progress]

10. DeSantis downplays testing for people without symptoms, calling it a 'lockdown by stealth'

Rebecca Cohen 7 hours ago

... DeSantis said anyone is free to get tested if they want, "it's unlikely to yield very much clinical value for you."

"It's essentially a lockdown by stealth," he argued.

DeSantis' opinion contradicts the prevailing point of view among public health experts, who say that more, not less testing is key to limiting the virus' spread ...

https://www.businessinsider.com/desantis-downplays-covid-19-testing-for-people-without-symptoms-2022-1

[struggle4progress]

11. Rubio minimizing severity of Covid surge

Jan. 6, 2022, 3:45 PM EST / Updated Jan. 6, 2022, 9:02 PM EST
By Suzanne Gamboa

Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who faces re-election this year, has doubled down on downplaying the latest increase in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, saying that it is not a crisis and that the demand for Covid testing is hysteria.

The controversy over his comments comes after Florida had a 744 percent jump in cases in the past two weeks, joining Washington as the two states with the biggest jump ...

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/rubio-doubles-minimizing-severity-covid-surge-rcna11238

[llmart]

12. Was the sickly looking DeSatan one of them?

I sure hope so, but we'll never know because he's not about to admit it.

[struggle4progress]

15. Let's spin a tune for Ron

[llmart]

16. Perfect!

[uponit7771]

17. +1

[struggle4progress]

13. Recipe for disaster: Florida Department of Health testing guidelines contradict CDC's

By CAROLINE CATHERMAN
ORLANDO SENTINEL |
JAN 06, 2022 AT 6:06 PM

... The CDC recommends people get tested if they have had close contact with someone with COVID-19, if they have COVID-19 symptoms, or if they are not fully vaccinated. It notes that people can spread COVID-19 even if asymptomatic, so testing is crucial.

Public health experts worry the new Florida DOH guidelines, released in a one-page document on Thursday, could exacerbate the current COVID-19 surge ...

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/coronavirus/os-ne-covid-19-ladapo-new-testing-guidelines-20220106-orp4x3gdinbwxm7yqovsqstpnm-story.html

[struggle4progress]

14. Cleveland Clinic Florida postponing non-urgent surgeries

By NBC 6 • Published January 6, 2022 • Updated on January 6, 2022 at 12:58 pm

Cleveland Clinic Florida is postponing non-urgent surgeries and adjusting its hospital visitation guidelines amid a surge in COVID-19 cases.

The new policy applies to non-urgent surgeries that require a hospital bed ...

https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/cleveland-clinic-florida-postponing-non-urgent-surgeries-amid-covid-surge/2655979/

[edhopper]

18. And Florida will still

Re-elect DiSantis.

[bahboo]

20. surely there's somebody the dems can run....

the asshole is doing harm to himself I think, and might be vulnerable...

[edhopper]

22. You underestimate

the stupidity of the Florida voter and the corruption of the election system there under the Repukes.

[Takket]

19. only 16% of ICU beds are covid? That doesn't seem right.....

shouldn't that number be a lot higher? Thought ICUs were all flooded with covid patients.

[cadoman]

21. Florida's stats, even as bad as they are, are faked to make themselves look better

The state is a viral shithole.

Probably _the_ one state you most want to avoid, because even if they didn't have an anti-science COVID response, tfg and his entourage are there.