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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hit back on Wednesday after President Biden criticized him and other Republican governors for banning mask mandates. Speaking at a news conference, DeSantis promised to stand in the way of “lockdown policies” and accused Biden of trying to restrict the rights of parents and children in Florida. “Joe Biden suggests that if you don’t do lockdown policies, then you should ‘get out of the way.’ But let me tell you this: If you’re coming after the rights of parents in Florida, I’m standing in your way. I’m not going to let you get away with it,” DeSantis said. (Chalfant, 8/4)

Over the past month, Florida's seven-day average number of COVID-19 cases has spiked by a large percentage, as the state has seen a surge of new cases, deaths and hospitalizations. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as of August 1, Florida was reporting a seven-day average of new cases of 17,024, but this number was far lower just a month ago. (Impelli, 8/4)

Florida hospitals are struggling to get oxygen due to a rise in Covid-19 cases attributable to the delta variant and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s decision not to declare another state of emergency. A shortage of drivers who are qualified to transport oxygen, as well as restrictions around how long truck drivers can be on the road—which went back into effect following the expiration of the public health emergency in the state—means that the supply isn’t getting to the hospitals that need it most. (Stein, 8/4)

A South Florida hospital chain is suspending elective surgeries and putting beds in conference rooms, an auditorium and even a cafeteria as many more patients seek treatment for COVID-19. “We are seeing a surge like we’ve not seen before in terms of the patients coming,” Memorial Healthcare System’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Marc Napp said Wednesday during a news conference in Hollywood. (Kennedy, 8/5)

A fourth wave of COVID-19 is threatening to overwhelm U.S. hospitals in regions where large swaths of unvaccinated people provide little resistance to the highly contagious delta variant. Nowhere is the strain more apparent than Florida, which reached a new peak Tuesday of 11,515 people hospitalized with COVID-19, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Hospitals in Jacksonville and Orlando last week crashed through their pandemic peaks, and hospitals in Miami-Dade County are at or approaching record coronavirus hospitalizations this week, said Mary Mayhew, CEO of Florida Hospital Association. (Alltucker, 8/4)

Florida school districts are moving to resist Gov. Ron DeSantis’ order barring schools from implementing mask requirements for kids, setting up a fight with the Republican governor who has resisted any Covid-related mandates. Late Tuesday night, school board members in Alachua County in north Florida voted to require all students to wear masks during the first two weeks of school. And Wednesday morning, Leon County, which includes Tallahassee, announced it’s seeking a mandatory mask rule for students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. Both are direct rejections of DeSantis’ executive order prohibiting schools from enacting mask requirements for students. (Atterbury, 8/4)

Some of Florida’s largest school districts have announced they will either keep or issue new mask mandates in light of the coronavirus outbreak that is ravaging the state, challenging an order by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) threatening to withhold funds from school districts if they mandate that students wear face coverings. At least four school districts in the state are pushing back against the governor’s staunch opposition to new virus restrictions or mask mandates after he issued an executive order Friday saying that recent guidance from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that students wear masks “lacks” scientific justification and warning that the government could withhold state funds from “noncompliant” schools. (Villegas and Kornfield, 8/4)