Scott Powers
That marked the 13th time in 15 days that the six counties comprising greater Orlando combined for more than 2,000 new cases in one day in 2021, after the region tallied just six such days all last year. Friday’s daily COVID-19 report from the Florida Department of Health also was the most the region had seen in the past week. The region tallied 2,209 cases Thursday, and 2,397 on Wednesday.
Perhaps more alarming for health officials, the numbers of deaths being attributed to the disease each day has been trending steadily upward. Those numbers tend to fluctuate significantly day-to-day as the state confirms and compiles cause-of-death reports as they come in; but running averages across seven-day periods have been fairly steady from week to week.
In the last couple of weeks of December and the first week of January about 13-15 deaths were being classified per day as due to COVID-19 in the six counties of Central Florida. The region’s running seven-day average for newly-classified deaths hit 16 on Tuesday, 17, on Wednesday, 18 on Thursday and 20 in Friday’s report.
In Orange County, 1,025 newly-confirmed COVID-19 cases were reported Friday, up from 900 on Thursday and 1,004 the day before. Volusia County saw 493 new cases reported Friday, up from 210 on Thursday and 351 on Wednesday. Brevard County tallied 378 new cases in Friday’s report, up from 290 on Thursday, and 323 on Wednesday. Osceola County received news of 323 newly-confirmed COVID-19 cases Friday, down from 331 on Thursday but up from 295 on Wednesday. Seminole County saw 247 new cases on Friday, down from 262 on Thursday but up from 220 on Wednesday.
The state reported 66 more people were admitted to hospitals with COVID-19 Friday, the most for any one day this winter, topping the previous-worst tally of 64 new admissions seen Thursday. Friday’s total included 28 in Brevard, 16 in Volusia, 15 in Orange, four in Lake, two in Osceola, and one in Seminole.
The region saw 21 new COVID-19 deaths tallied Friday, compared to 28 Thursday and 23 Wednesday. On Friday the death toll included ten people in Lake whose deaths were attributed to COVID-19, eight in Brevard, two in Seminole, and one in Orange.
