Crisis, what crisis? Florida Republicans deny Omicron is straining hospitals

But in short, Florida has become a focal point of the often politicized debate over whether the Omicron variant is dangerous enough to overwhelm hospital systems and requires precautions taken earlier in the pandemic.

Florida Democrats blamed DeSantis for the fact that state residents have recently waited hours in line to get a Covid test.

The testing shortage has also prompted some Florida residents to visit emergency rooms in search of tests. The Florida Hospital Association last week on Twitter urged people with mild or no symptoms not to visit emergency rooms for tests and instead find a testing site.

Still, Broward Health tests all patients who are admitted.

Regardless of how representative the Covid infection and hospitalization numbers are of the scale of the problem in Florida, the virus continues to upend normal care and staffing. On 2 January, Holy Cross Health in Broward county had to shut down its labor and delivery unit because of staffing shortages due to people who became sick with the virus.

Five patients have been transferred to Broward Health, and a number of other patients proactively changed their plans to physicians at the hospital, according to a Broward Health spokesperson.