As quickly as one COVID patient is discharged, another is waiting at one of Baptist Health's five hospitals across Jacksonville, the hot zone in Florida's latest surge. But these patients are younger, and getting sick faster than last summer's pandemic peak. Baptist's hospitals had 532 COVID patients Wednesday, more than double the 224 it had during Florida's July 2020 surge, and the onslaught isn't letting up. Hospital officials are anxiously monitoring 10 forecast models, converting empty spaces, adding over 100 beds and "bracing for the worst," said Dr. Timothy Groover, the hospitals' interim chief medical officer. The highly contagious delta variant is hitting the Sunshine State so hard that one in five COVID patients hospitalized nationwide is in Florida. And as with the rest of the state, the vast majority of hospitalized patients in Duval County were unvaccinated. • • • • • We strive to create a place for meaningful discussion on all our platforms. Due to staff time, the sheer number of comments and increasingly divisive discourse, we have disabled comments on all videos from the wire service and when threads diverge into attacks, spam or hateful talk. ------------------ For More News and Videos SUBSCRIBE and Turn Notifications On https://bit.ly/2r0BEND Get a Digital Subscription to the Tampa Bay Times https://bit.ly/2Xinunj Follow us: Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/tampabaycom Twitter ► https://twitter.com/TB_Times Instagram ► https://www.instagram.com/tampabaytimes #Jacksonville #Florida #COVID