Florida breaks COVID-19 hospitalization record with more than 10,200 patients

Florida broke a new record for COVID-19 hospitalizations on Sunday, reporting more than 10,200 patients.

According to data reported to the Department of Health and Human Services, 10,207 COVID-19 patients were in the hospital in Florida, The Associated Press reported. 

That beat out the previous record of 10,170 hospitalizations logged on July 23, 2020, according to the Florida Hospital Association, months before any vaccine was available.

The hospitalization record came just days after Florida registered its highest daily number of confirmed COVID-19 cases since the beginning of the pandemic with 21,683, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). According to the AP, Florida now has the highest number of COVID-19 hospitalizations per capita in the country.

The news comes as the U.S. is grappling with the increasing spread of the delta variant, the dominant strain of the virus, in portions of the country where people remain unvaccinated.

About 50 percent of Florida is fully vaccinated, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and other Republican politicians have fought against mandatory mask requirements in light of renewed guidance issued by the CDC last week that advised fully vaccinated people to start wearing masks inside in areas of high COVID-19 transmission. 

The school board in Broward County already announced earlier this week that its students and staff would need to start wearing masks inside in response to higher cases counts in South Florida, putting the school board directly at odds with DeSantis.