As the U.S. grapples with a coronavirus surge fueled by the Delta variant, Florida currently has the highest death rate among all the states.
According to The New York Times COVID-19 tracker, Florida—the third largest state by population—has a death rate of 1.56 per 100,000 people over the last seven days.
Florida has averaged 15,462 new daily cases over the past week, a rate of 72 per 100,000.
While the state has recorded a 34 percent decline in cases over the past 14 days, figures from the tracker show August was the deadliest month for Florida since the pandemic began.
The state reported more than 5,721 deaths in August, overtaking the previous monthly high of 5,469 deaths in January—when far fewer people were vaccinated—according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number of daily deaths appears to be increasing still, despite the decline in cases. In total, more than 46,000 people in Florida have died due to COVID-19 over the course of the pandemic—the majority being elderly people.
Around 14,900 people per day have been hospitalized in the state, which has fully vaccinated around 54 percent of its citizens, over the past seven days—a rate of 69 per 100,000 residents.
The number of daily hospitalizations has declined by 13 percent over the past 14 days, according to the Times tracker.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has opposed certain mitigation measures to help slow the spread of the various over the course of the pandemic.
The state with the next highest death rate is Mississippi, with a rate of 1.25 per 100,000 residents over the last seven days, figures from the tracker show.
Mississippi—with a population of nearly three million people—has averaged more than 2,700 new cases per day over the past seven days.
Like Florida, Mississippi has also experienced a decline in new COVID cases over the past two weeks seeing a 23 percent drop, according to the tracker.
The state has also recorded an average of 1,623 daily hospitalizations over the past seven days—although there has been a slight reduction of two percent over the past two weeks. This has placed the hospital system under significant strain.
The state has averaged around 37 daily deaths in the last seven days. Mississippi, which is one of the least vaccinated states in the country also experienced a large spike in deaths over the course of August.
Mississippi is one of the least vaccinated states—with only around 39 percent of its population being fully vaccinated.
Correction 09/07/21, 04:26 a.m ET: This article was updated to correct the social media headline.
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Aristos is a Newsweek science reporter with the London, U.K., bureau. He reports on science and health topics, including; animal, ... Read more
