The dangerous and contagious COVID-19 Delta Variant is sweeping the country, leading to more people in hospitals.

On the latest episode of This Week in South Florida, host Glenna Milberg is joined by Rep Carlos Gimenez, Jackson Health CEO Carlos Migoya, former Miami-Dade College president Eduardo Padron and Miami Fire Chief Joseph Zahralban.

On the latest episode of the This Week in South Florida podcast, host Glenna Milberg is joined by Rep Carlos Gimenez, Jackson Health CEO Carlos Migoya, former Miami-Dade College president Eduardo Padron and Miami Fire Chief Joseph Zahralban.

Last week, doctors from South Florida's busiest hospitals literally pleaded for the unvaccinated to change their minds and get a shot.

Medical professionals and public health experts are frustrated and exasperated. What will it take for the unvaccinated, who are now making up the majority of those hospitalized, to get protected against COVID-19?

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – One year ago today, the lawn was empty at Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Alamo Park. Ever since that moment, Jackson Memorial Hospital has been at the forefront of the COVID battle. Now, Jackson Memorial Hospital is part of the first group of five hospitals in the state to get vaccines for workers. Ad″It’s been very hard for everybody,” says Paula Weisburg, who is an infection preventionist at Jackson Memorial Hospital. According to Weinsburg, it’s emotional to see the flags in the ground, but she is encouraged by the progress Jackson Memorial Hospital has made.

MIAMI, Fla. – The age of 65 has been a key number in the COVID-19 vaccination race in Florida since doses arrived in the state. (WPLG)However, until there is a bigger percentage of the population vaccinated, medical experts advise everyone to continue with the new normal and emphasize that case mitigation strategies are important. Miami Dade County’s Chief Public Safety Officer J.D. “If we remove these controls, that community spread is a serious threat to our hospitals, and our public safety infrastructure just might be overrun,” Patterson said. DeSantis announced that new option Thursday, saying the state has vaccinated over 1,500 homebound seniors to date.

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Miami Dade College’s North Campus is now home to a massive vaccination site run by the state and supported by FEMA. More than 2,000 doses will be administered there per day, 500 of which will be the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine. AdThe U.S. Army is prepared to administer 2,500 Pfizer doses and 500 Johnson & Johnson doses daily. Both are offering 500 doses daily and are open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week. Ad“(The) Jackson Health System has vaccinated over 97,000 members of the community,” Jackson Health System CEO Carlos Migoya said.

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Jackson Health System is expanding its vaccinations to Floridians 55 and older if they have a specific medical condition that has shown to be high-risk for COVID-19. Residents 55 and older and with at least one of those conditions can make appointments online at jacksonhealth.org when doses are available. AdJackson provided a sample of a doctor’s note that shows all of the necessary information, which can be seen below:Gov. “We will continue to take care of people over 65 with any kind of conditions or no conditions,” Migoya said. AdGeller says Broward has already vaccinated about 175,000 seniors, and he estimates that about 150,000 of those are residents of the county.

PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – Joining the latest episode of This Week in South Florida are Congressman Ted Deutch and Jackson Health CEO Carlos Migoya. They joined TWISF hosts Michael Putney and Glenna Milberg. The full episode can be seen at the top of this page.

PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – Tensions boiled over this week as South Florida seniors tried for COVID-19 vaccination appointments. Scheduling websites opened but filled and closed in minutes. Hospital systems from Broward to Miami-Dade could not accommodate the crush of people who want and need the vaccine. Among those is Miami-Dade’s Jackson Health Systems. CEO Carlos Migoya joined This Week in South Florida hosts Glenna Milberg and Michael Putney to discuss, and their conversation can be seen at the top of this page.

MIAMI – Local leaders and healthcare executives announced plans Tuesday to ramp up distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine throughout Miami-Dade County. More than 30,000 people in Miami-Dade have received their first shot already. “We have heard loudly and clearly from our seniors that you are ready for the vaccine. “The quicker we’re able to innoculate all the patients, the quicker we are to receive more vaccine,” said Rafael Mas, Leon’s Chief Medical Officer. Juan Hernández, who got the vaccine Tuesday, said “this is probably one of the happiest days of my life.”ALSO SEEWhere are coronavirus vaccines available in Miami-Dade County?

(AP Photo/Andy Wong)BEIJING — China has designated parts of Hebei province near Beijing as a coronavirus high danger zone after 14 new cases of COVID-19 were found. The other three COVID-19 cases were in the city of Yantai. Approximately 174 private clinics have also requested vaccines, State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said. County health officials fear the incoming Christmas and New Year’s surge. Superintendent Henderson Lewis said a spike in positive cases in the city prompted the “unfortunate but necessary” decision to go back to distance learning.

PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – On the latest episode of This Week in South Florida, hosts Michael Putney and Glenna Milberg are joined by Dr. Sunil Kumar, Carlos Migoya, Ana Maria Rodriguez, Ed Pozzouli and Fernand Amandi. The full episode can be seen at the top of this page.

PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – Moments that made history unfolded in South Florida last week when the first freezer-packed doses of coronavirus vaccine arrived at local hospitals. Frontline medical professionals who are most exposes to COVID-19 patients were the first to get the shots. Carlos Migoya is the Chief Executive Officer at for Jackson Health System in South Florida. He joined This Week in South Florida hosts Glenna Milberg and Michael Putney to discuss, and their conversation can be seen at the top of this page.

Michael Putney came to Local 10 in 1989 to become senior political reporter and host of "This Week In South Florida with Michael Putney." He is Local 10's senior political reporter.

MIAMI – Jackson Memorial Hospital was one of the hospitals chosen to get the first round of vaccines because of its high coronavirus caseload, and the hospital received nearly 20,000 doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday. “Feel like we are finally on the offense,” said Dr. David Woosley, Jackson Memorial Hospital’s emergency department attending physician. Fernando Acosta headed to work at Jackson Memorial Hospital Tuesday morning, the same hospital where he received treatment last month for a severe case of COVID-19. Dr. Brian Hunis, an Associate Medical Director for Memorial Cancer Institute, received his Pfizer vaccination on Tuesday in Miramar. “I’m really excited that I got the vaccine so I’ll be able to protect my daughter when I come home from work,” said Dr. Hansel Tookes, an infectious diseases physician at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

MIAMI, Fla. – Another surge in COVID-19 cases in South Florida and the number of hospitalizations is also on the rise. Healthcare workers are overwhelmed and hospital officials are saying that the area hasn’t seen the worst of it. “We cannot afford to get to the kinds of numbers we had in South Florida back in July,” he said. Hospital CEOs said that even field hospitals like those previously set up don’t help if there aren’t enough workers to staff them. This past summer, South Florida was a hot spot for COVID-19 and hospitals had millions of dollars from the state to bring in traveling nurses.

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava held her first virtual news conference Tuesday afternoon on the response to the coronavirus pandemic since taking office. Levine Cava started the news conference by reminding residents that the New Normal guidelines approved by former Mayor Carlos Gimenez remain in place at this time. Levine Cava and Paige also urged residents to be cautious during their Thanksgiving celebrations this week. [Residents may visit MiamiDade.gov/newnormal for the latest on the New Normal guidelines in Miami-Dade County.] “When you say 40 million doses, remember Pfizer takes two doses per person, one immediately and the other one in 21 days, so that brings it down to 20 million people,” he said.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez gave residents a reality check Monday. “The second wave is inevitable, we need to start it from the lowest place possible,” Gimenez said. Gimenez also pointed to figures showing Fire Rescue calls across the county for coronavirus cases are also up. “We are all prepared for, god forbid, where we hit that surge,” Migoya said. "All our projections are that there will be an increase or an uptick surge over the next 30 days, with peak being in the latter part of November.

PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. A slow but solid trend downward in South Florida cases of COVID-19 has been ongoing recently. One of the best signs of that are in the numbers of hospital admissions, which are going down. It's happening across the Jackson Health System as well. Jackson Health CEO Carlos Migoya joined Michael Putney and Glenna Milberg on This Week in South Florida to discuss. Their conversation can be seen at the top of this page.

PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. Jackson Health CEO Carlos Migoya, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Son of President Donald Trump, Eric Trump, and veteran political reporters Anthony Man from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and David Smiley of the Miami Herald join This Week in South Florida. The full show can be seen at the top of this page.

MIAMI The head of South Florida's largest public hospital system is sharing some encouraging news in the fight against COVID-19. There are similar sentiments coming from hospitals in Broward County. Finally, in what has been an epicenter for coronavirus cases in the state, a slow, steady decrease does seem to be a valid trend. Hospital numbers are a leading metric that validates the new development. South Florida hospital bed availability currently hovers between 21 and 22 percent and ICU availability is just under 14 percent.

MIAMI The rise in COVID-19 hospitalizations across South Florida continues as the state navigates through the latest surge in cases. The Jackson Health System has seen a 226 percent increase in coronavirus hospitalizations from June 14 to July 14th. If you ask Carlos Migoya, who runs Jackson Health, he thinks there is a behavioral issue in the community. Jackson Health System has 153 employees currently with COVID-19, including 37 nurses. Memorial West pans to use its auxiliary auditorium for non-COVID patients in the next day or so.

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez is holding a Zoom news conference Monday at 11 a.m. and will be joined by several members of his team of medical experts. Theyll discuss the latest coronavirus updates after a record-breaking spike of new COVID-19 cases Sunday. Expected on the call are: Lilian M. Abbo, M.D., Infectious Diseases Specialist, University of Miami Health System; Tanira B. Ferreira, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, Inpatient and Acute Care Services, University of Miami Health System; Aileen M. Marty, M.D., Infectious Diseases Specialist, Florida International University Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine; Samir M. Elmir, Ph.D., P.E., DEE, CEHP, Director, Division of Environmental Health and Engineering, Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade County; Yesenia D. Villalta, APRN, D.N.P., M.S.N, Executive Community Health Nursing Director, Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade County; and Carlos Migoya, President and CEO of Jackson Health System. ALSO SEE: Miami-Dade mayor says this thing is everywhere, calls on community to take COVID-19 surge seriously

The spike in cases has led some South Florida hospitals to cancel elective surgeries to make room for potential patients. At the current rate, Miami-Dade hospital capacity will max out in about a month. The states real-time census showed South Florida hospital capacity hovering around 20% Wednesday afternoon. "The biggest thing you can do, how to help us, is culturally and behaviorally help the South Florida community change that behavior," he said. In Broward County, Memorial Healthcare System hospitals are also suspending non-emergency procedures that would require bed space.

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. Protecting COVID-19 hospital capacity is getting harder. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday that we are very well positioned to handle what comes down the pike.But, statewide, hospital capacity is either wide open or tight, depending on geography. In the states coronavirus capital, South Florida, the numbers trend in a concerning direction. Though the spiking COVID-19 cases include many younger patients, they too account for hospital admissions and the spread that concerns those managing the medical front lines. We need to figure out how to slow down that infection rate thats happening out there thats creating the sickness that makes the people need to be hospitalized, Migoya said.

MIAMI – In a letter sent to Jackson Health System employees, Carlos Migoya, the chief executive officer of Miami-Dade County’s public hospital, painted a grim picture. “This will almost certainly get worse before it gets better,” Migoya wrote, echoing U.S. As the deadly respiratory illness spreads, Jackson Health System and other hospitals “could be at great financial risk,” Migoya warned. In the letter, Migoya asked employees in non-clinical roles “to voluntarily use personal leave over the next few weeks” in an attempt to avoid layoffs. Despite the $830 million bond that passed in 2013 allowing Jackson to invest in much-needed upgrades, the response to the pandemic’s impact is testing the system.