STATEWIDE — As hospitals in the Tampa Bay and Central Florida areas continue to work around the clock to help those severely sick with COVID-19, a new CDC study shows just how powerful this delta variant is.


What You Need To Know

  • Those who haven’t gotten the vaccine are 29 times more likely to be hospitalized, study says

  • Unvaccinated folks are five times more likely to get the virus, according to the CDC

According to the new CDC study, those who are unvaccinated not only are 29 times more likely to go hospitalized with COVID. The study presented in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report also shows that unvaccinated folks are five times more likely to get the virus.

Doctors throughout Central Florida and the Tampa Bay area have emphasized how this virus could attack anyone at any age.

This week, there have been more than 100,000 positive cases in Florida and that is a massive difference from last month/s surge.

Doctors say as more individuals receive the vaccine, those numbers are expected to go down even further.

"Every person that passes away that was unvaccinated it's, um, it's a preventable death. It's very, it's, it's heartbreaking actually,” said Dr. Warren Abel, a critical care physician at St. Anthony’s Hospital in St. Petersburg.

More than 75 million Americans remain unvaccinated and health leaders are encouraging people to go to their local health department to get the vaccine.