Florida is in the grip of its deadliest wave of Covid-19 since the pandemic began, a disaster driven by the highly contagious Delta variant.

While Florida’s vaccination rate is slightly higher than the national average, the Sunshine State has an outsize population of elderly people, who are especially vulnerable to the virus; a vibrant party scene; and a Republican governor who has taken a hard line against mask requirements, vaccine passports and business shutdowns.

Hospitals have had to rent refrigerated trucks to store more bodies. Funeral homes have been overwhelmed.

As of mid-August, the state was averaging 244 deaths per day, up from just 23 a day in late June and eclipsing the previous peak of 227 during the summer of 2020.