With 64 percent of the adult population being fully vaccinated, more Floridians are dying from COVID-19 now than ever before.
The seven-day average peaked on Aug. 20 at 269 deaths a day, with more than 11 Floridians dying per hour from a virus that has claimed 46,973 lives in the state, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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The data relies on the actual date of death, not the increase in reported deaths over the previous day, which is a less reliable gauge of the pandemic’s lethality at any given moment.
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Last month, 6,619 died — a number certain to rise as more deaths occurring last month are confirmed in coming days to be related to COVID.
By comparison, in August 2020, 5,186 Florida residents died.
Before this latest wave of death, fueled by the delta variant, the summer 2020 wave was the deadliest, with the seven-day average peaking on Aug. 5, 2020 at 228.
The winter surge, which followed the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, peaked Jan. 18, 2021, when the seven-day average reached 201 deaths per day.
The surge in deaths comes despite the state’s early efforts to vaccinate seniors, the most vulnerable residents.
Eight-six percent of Florida residents ages 60 and over have received at least one dose of vaccine, according to state Department of Health records. But that still leaves nearly 847,000 of them unvaccinated.
Since Memorial Day weekend, about 70 percent of the 9,801 people who died in Florida were ages 60 or older.
Younger Floridians, whose vaccination rates are lower, are making up a larger proportion of the dead than they did prior to the delta surge — 30 percent of those who have died since Memorial Day, twice the rate in that age group since the beginning of the pandemic.
