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Governor Ron DeSantis rejected calls from local elected officials and the medical community and stated that he will not declare a state of emergency even though Florida is the epicenter of the “pandemic of the unvaccinated,” said his office.
The worrying rebound in coronavirus cases in Florida, which according to the latest official report presents a positivity rate of 15. 1%, led several officials to petition the state governor , Ron DeSantis, to declare a state of emergency.
State Legislator Annette Taddeo sent a letter to DeSantis on Tuesday asking him to declare a state of emergency, which would be the second during the pandemic, in view of the fact that “covid-related hospitalizations – 19 increased by 106% in Florida during the last 2 weeks. ”
“Right now, our state is experiencing infection and hospitalization rates similar to those that occurred in June of 2020, when we witnessed the highest rates of infection, intubations and deaths, “said state legislator Taddeo in her letter.
This morning I sent a letter directly to @ GovRonDeSantis asking him to declare a state of emergency.
This would provide our hospitals with the much needed resources they require to beat this surge.
COVID-related hospitalizations are up by 106% in Florida over the last 2 weeks. pic.twitter.com/KDiMAVaDCz
– Annette Taddeo (She / Her / Ella) (@Annette_Taddeo) July 30, 2021
DeSantis signed in March of last year an emergency declaration due to the advance of the covid – 19, which was later extended and kept in force until 3 May of this year.
Also no signs of a return to the daily reports on the incidence of coronavirus in this state, one of the few in the United States where all its counties (67) are at the “high” level of community transmission of the disease, according to the governmental Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, e n English).
Taddeo asked DeSantis to return to the daily incidence reports, which since last June 7 were replaced by weekly reports, for that, he said , “Fully understand our situation.”
“We are not seeing the full scope of COVID cases – 19 due to incomplete data ”, added the legislator.
Alarming figures
According to the latest official report from the Florida Department of Health, published last Friday, the alarming figure of 73, 106 new infections in the week of 16 to the 22 for July, an increase in 60% compared to the previous (45, 584 cases), more than any other state in the country.
The United States now has a high level of community transmission due to # COVID 19 cases rapidly increasing in some parts of the country . Learn more about the levels of community transmission across the US on CDC’s COVID Data Tracker: https: // t .co / cROqLRIcgJ . pic.twitter.com/PQAz68 xvVG
– CDC (@CDCgov) July 27, 2021
The positivity rate reached 15. 1%, with an average of 10, 000 new daily infections for a total accumulated of about 2.5 million cases in the state since the start of the pandemic on March 1, 2020, according to the state agency.
Including, in Volusia County, In Central Florida, the positivity rate reached 21. 6% and in Union, to the north, it was 30%.
Also, last week were posted 282 deaths from covid – 19 in Florida, a state with only the 60. 5% of its population fully vaccinated and with hospitals on high alert due to the increase in the number of infected hospitalized.
The The legislator sent her letter the same day that the covid – 19 return to wearing a mask indoors in most of the country.
The measurement is u n setback in relation to the recommendations of this agency in May, when vaccination advanced steadily and informed those who had already received the full schedule that they could go without a mask most of the time, even indoors.
Compulsory vaccinations for health workers
On Monday, almost 60 medical and health groups, including the American Medical Association, the American College of Physicians, and the American Academy of Pediatrics, issued a joint statement calling on all hospitals and centers for US health care that requires its employees to get vaccinated against covid – 19.
In a commentary published in The American Journal of Medicine, Dr. Charles Hen Nekens, from the Florida Atlantic University School of Medicine (FAU), said that in the US the covid – 19 is “largely an epidemic of unvaccinated people” and it was alarming that among workers health workers do not have high levels of vaccination.
“Currently, in the US. Healthcare workers and the general public should be well aware that these vaccines provide the best opportunity to combat COVID – 19. Rejection of the vaccine by health workers poses an ‘ethical quagmire,’ ”Hennekens stressed.
At a time when in Florida and the United States the case figures skyrocket due to new variants such as the delta, more contagious than the previous ones, as well as the Brazilian and the Colombian, the latter the most recent, the epidemiologist from the University of South Florida Edwin Michael and his colleague Ken Newcomb suggest double the vaccination figures.
Michael noted that it will not be achieved herd immunity until the vaccination rate is at least 85%.
With information from agencies