Some Florida Hospitals Have More Covid Patients Than Ever Before

A rapid rise in Covid-19 hospitalizations in parts of the country with lagging vaccination rates is causing alarm.

MIAMI — A month ago, the number of Covid-19 patients admitted at two University of Florida hospitals in Jacksonville was down to 14. Now more than 140 people are hospitalized with the virus, a tenfold increase over five weeks — and the highest number of Covid patients this system has seen since the start of the pandemic. Debra Wells, 65, was among those admitted to one of the hospitals earlier this month when what she thought was a cold grew worse and worse until she couldn’t breathe. “I said, ‘Lord, I feel like I’m dying,’” she recalled. Like most of the patients that hospital officials say they are admitting in Jacksonville and other fast-filling medical facilities in pockets around the country, Ms. Wells was unvaccinated. She had worried, she said, that the shots were not safe.