TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis addressed the public on Sunday from Miami Gardens, touching on one of the biggest concerns health care experts have — how coronavirus could overwhelm the health care system.
“The hospitalization rate is something that we’re following closely, the number of beds and the bed capacity statewide,” DeSantis said.
The governor spoke outside Hard Rock Stadium, where emergency management personnel are opening a mobile drive-thru testing facility they hope to have up and running by Wednesday.
“We’re at 18,131 available beds statewide,” DeSantis said. “We’re at about 1,700 ICU beds statewide. Thirty-four percent of our hospitals statewide have 50 percent or greater capacity right now.”
Florida has a population of about 22 million people, approximately 25 percent of whom are over the age of 60.
About half of Florida’s 768 confirmed positive coronavirus cases are in three South Florida counties — Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach.
But it’s the impact on the overall health system that experts say is a huge concern — the same issue that is affecting Italy right now, a country that passed China this week with the most coronavirus deaths.
Watch the full press conference in the video player below:
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