Lost to COVID: Summer delta wave puts Florida in top 10 states for pandemic deaths
Florida has moved into the top 10 states with the highest COVID-19 death rates as a fierce summer wave pushes the virus’ toll past 50,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Florida now has the No. 10 highest per capita death rate among U.S. states. More than a fourth of those deaths have occurred over the summer, despite the widespread availability of vaccines that are highly effective in preventing serious illness.
“The majority of people we are losing in Florida right now are still in the older population,” said Cindy Prins, a public health researcher at the University of Florida. “Even though we had pretty good vaccine coverage, it wasn’t as high as it could be or obviously needed to be.”
Behind the numbers is a trail of heartbreak.
Yariela Borras, 41, of Kissimmee, lost her 69-year-old father to the virus on Aug. 28. Her father, Luis Rios, loved spending time with his grandchildren, cruising in his pickup truck and lounging in the pool.
He was between his first and second vaccine dose when he caught the virus and battled COVID-19 for about a month in the intensive care unit, Borras said.
“When we lost my father, we became one of the statistics,” she said. “Becoming one of the statistics — you have a different perspective on the whole situation.”
Borras said her family is still waiting for her father’s ashes nearly a month after his death because of a backlog of cremations.
“This is how bad it is,” she said. “Funeral homes are backed up. There is no closure yet for my family and other families who are still waiting for this.”
Florida has logged 51,892 COVID-19 deaths as of Wednesday. That’s an average of 91 deaths a day since the first COVID-19 cases were detected in Florida on March 1, 2020. Only heart disease and cancer have killed more people during that period, according to data from the Florida Department of Health.
Florida’s stats look much worse than they did before the delta wave struck.
In February, Gov. Ron DeSantis touted that Florida managed to keep its economy mostly open while keeping COVID-19 deaths below the national average.
“Florida got it right and the lockdown states got it wrong,” he said, as he kicked off the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando.
Florida’s death rate is now 241 deaths per 100,000 people, which is higher than the national average of 203 deaths per 100,000 people.
Florida’s older population makes it more susceptible to the virus, and the CDC’s data does not account for that, said Christina Pushaw, a spokesperson for DeSantis.
Florida has the second highest share of residents 65 and older in the country.
DeSantis has attributed Florida’s hot climate as a reason why it is hit harder in the summer with people crowded indoors to escape the scorching heat. Critics have blamed DeSantis for not doing enough to promote vaccines, masks and other public health safeguards.
Dr. Joseph Ladapo, Florida’s new surgeon general, said a multitude of factors contribute to outbreaks, and it’s difficult to draw conclusions when comparing states.
“The game of sort of doing these state-to-state comparisons and saying, ‘So and so did a good job,’ I think that is a silly game,” he told reporters after being introduced Tuesday.
In March, Florida had the No. 27th death rate for COVID-19, which was only slightly worse than California, a state that implemented a statewide mask mandate and more stringent restrictions.
But Florida and California diverged over the summer. California is now at No. 33 in the country with a rate of 171 deaths per 100,000 people.
About 64% of eligible Floridians are fully vaccinated, including nearly 85% of residents 65 and older, according to the CDC. Those numbers are in line with the national average.
But the virus still found pockets of unprotected people who were vulnerable, Prins said.
“There is a story behind every person who has died, and it is really sad when it is preventable for the most part,” she said.
To try to visualize the pandemic’s toll, Prins said she looks at the campus where she works.
The University of Florida’s total enrollment is roughly equal to the number of people who have died of COVID-19 in the state.
South Florida Sun Sentinel creative director David Schutz contributed to this report.
Editor’s note: Graphics in this story were updated to correct New York state’s COVID-19 death rate. The correct rate for that state is 281 deaths per 100,000 people.
