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News about coronavirus in Florida and around the world is constantly emerging. It's hard to stay on top of it all but Health News Florida can help. Our responsibility is to keep you informed, and to help discern what’s important for your family as you make what could be life-saving decisions.

Florida's COVID Death Toll Up As Hospitals Face Staffing Shortages

The state added 726 COVID-related deaths over the weekend, according to the CDC. While the deaths were recorded Saturday and Sunday, they may have occurred in previous weeks or months.

Florida recorded 726 deaths due to complications from COVID-19 over the weekend. That brought the state's overall total to 42,716.

While the deaths were recorded on Saturday and Sunday, they may have occurred in previous weeks or months.

The state also recorded 42,143 new cases of the coronavirus over the weekend. There have now been 3,082,733 in Florida.

On Monday, there were 17,143 people hospitalized in the state from COVID-19. And 3,557 people were in intensive care unit beds in Florida. That's more than half of the staffed ICU beds in the state.

The News Service of Florida reported that 49 Florida hospitals had critical staffing shortages on Monday and 51 hospitals were anticipating shortages within the week as the state continues to lead the nation in the percentage of inpatients with COVID-19, according to data posted by the U.S. Department of Health Human Services.

The state led the nation in the percentage of hospitalized patients with COVID-19, at more than 35 percent.

Copyright 2021 WUSF Public Media - WUSF 89.7

Julio Ochoa is editor of Health News Florida.