Gov. Ron DeSantis said it’s not a lack of hospital beds that could pose a problem as coronavirus cases continue to rise in Florida. It’s a shortage of medical personnel.
DeSantis said he’s already deployed 1,000 additional medical staffers – especially nurses – to hospitals throughout the state, including hard-hit South Florida.
The state is also sending up to 100 nurses to BayCare Health System in the Tampa region.
“So we’ve already dedicated 100 personnel that the state had had on contract basis to Jackson (Memorial Hospital) here in Miami-Dade," DeSantis said. "We’ve put 100 on the way into the Tampa Bay area.”
DeSantis said he plans on mobilizing another 2,000 health care workers who will also be assigned to hospitals and long-term care facilities.
He said he’s also applied for help from the federal Department of Health and Human Services in the form of disaster relief teams.
“We also have a request pending with the federal government with HHS for some of their teams to be able to come down and assist the effort.”
DeSantis said Floridians should continue to seek medical care for emergencies like heart attacks and strokes.
According to the Agency for Health Care Administration, the state had more than 13,700 hospital beds available as of Monday night.
