Tampa General Hospital

Hospitals in the greater Tampa Bay region are seeing spikes in COVID-19 cases, largely due to the fast-spreading delta variant.

In this interview, NPR's Sarah McCammon talks to Dr. Peggy Duggan, chief medical officer at Tampa General Hospital, about the increase in patients.

After facing nearly a dozen challenges from hospitals across the state, Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration has withdrawn a series of proposed rules related to regulating highly specialized health care services.

Whether the proposals will be enough to stop administrative challenges filed by Tampa General Hospital or Broward Health remains to be seen.

Broward Health Medical Center is part of the North Broward Hospital District, which decided this week to hire Shane Strum, Gov. DeSantis’ chief of staff, as its CEO.

On the "Florida Roundup," host Melissa Ross spoke with Dr. Jason Wilson, associate director of Tampa General Hospital’s emergency department about his experience with the Pfizer vaccine.

Recent surveys have shown a large percentage of Americans don't plan to get the COVID-19 vaccine because they don't trust it, are afraid of getting sick, or aren't concerned with the virus.

Now that the state has received initial shipments of the Pfizer vaccine, health workers and long-term care residents are starting to get their shots. More doses from Moderna could arrive in the state as soon as next week.

Gov. DeSantis said he thought HHS, which signed an agreement with Pfizer, would allocate based on states’ so-called at-risk populations. Instead, he said the feds “basically did it on a population basis.”

Tampa General Hospital is expected to begin distributing the first Pfizer vaccine doses early next week. The first shipments are expected by Dec. 15.