MIAMI — When Florida set its COVID-19 pandemic record for current hospitalizations in a report released Tuesday morning, it did so by blasting by 14,000 all the way past 15,000, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
HHS reported 15,169 inpatient beds in use for COVID-19, an increase of 1,192 from Monday’s report. And that statistical leap came from 231 hospitals, 20 fewer than were reporting to HHS the previous day. So the average number of COVID-19 patients per hospital shot from 55.7 to 65.7.
That represents 27.6% of the hospital patients in those 231 hospitals. Nationally, 10.1% of patients are hospitalized for COVID-19.
Intensive care units reported a congruent increase, of 225 patients to 3,060. That’s 47.2% of those hospitals’ ICU beds, compared with 21.3% across the United States.
Also, there are 73,300 beds in use for COVID-19 in the U.S., meaning Florida accounts for 20.7% of the nation’s COVID-19 hospital patients. The state has 17.9% of the country’s 17,140 COVID-19 patients in ICU beds.
