Florida doctor REFUSES to treat patients who haven't been vaccinated against ...

A Florida doctor says she will no longer treat patients in person if they are unvaccinated against Covid-19. 

Dr. Linda Marraccini said the decision was intended to protect her immunocompromised patients, such as those undergoing chemotherapy, and who are at a greater risk of infection. 

The policy goes into effect on September 15, and patients who refuse to get vaccinated, she says, have the option of remote telemedicine treatment or finding another primary care doctor. 

It comes amid the state's worst coronavirus outbreak since the start of the pandemic, driven largely by the spread of the Indian delta variant.

As of the last week in August, 705 new cases were being reported per 100,000 people, and the state was averaging 244 deaths from the virus per day, according to the CDC. 

In a positive sign that Florida's surge might be subsiding, however, hospitalizations from Covid-19 have dropped over the past two weeks from more than 17,000 to 14,200 on Friday. 

'I understand that people are free to choose, but to me, it’s a problem when it affects other people,' Marraccini, whose family practice is based in South Miami told NBC 6. 

She says only about 10 to 15 percent of her patients are hesitant about taking the vaccine, and for those people she said she gave them a month to figure out their plan going forward. 

'When it comes to the safety of others, when it comes to the fact that it’s a global health problem and community health problem, at this point, I really say that this is where it draws the line in the sand for me,' she told the station. 

Overall about 53.5 percent of Florida's total population has been vaccinated. 

Additionally, nationwide, the country continues to see a surge in coronavirus cases with a seven-day moving average of 153,000 new cases over the past week, a 4.9percent increase over the previous week