PEMBROKE PINES, Fla. – Cases of COVID-19 and hospitalizations continue to rise in Florida, and healthcare staff is wearing thin.
Close to 17,000 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 across the state, with the majority in South Florida.
Of those patients, 53 percent are in the ICU.
Many of the patients with COVID-19 have not been vaccinated.
While hospitals struggle to keep up with the surge of patients, antibody treatment sites are opening up in the state.
Last week monoclonal antibody sites opened in South Florida at Tropical Park in Miami and C.B. Smith Park in Pembroke Pines.
Maggie Hansen, the Chief Nursing Officer with Memorial Healthcare System said during an appearance on This Week in South Florida that medical professionals are continuing to battle vaccine hesitancy.
“I think some of the reasons people have waited is because they wanted to see what happened to other people,” Hansen said. “Eight months have passed now, and we have seen that vaccines are highly effective, and that they are the means to the end of this pandemic.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he hopes in the next few days that as many as 21 treatment sites will open in the state.
The testing sites at Tropical Park and C.B. Smith Park are open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
For more information on monoclonal antibody testing locations, visit floridahealthcovid19.gov.