Florida reports record 21K single-day case spike on NYE

Florida confirmed 30,767 new cases in the state over a two-day period, Thursday and Friday, according to the Florida Department of Health’s Saturday report.

The state shattered its record of single-day confirmed cases on Thursday, New Years Eve, in which 21,015 new cases were reported. New Years day only saw 9,752 new cases.

This new record comes immediately after the previous largest single-day spike that occurred on Wednesday, in which the state confirmed 17,192 new cases.

The state did not release a COVID-19 case report on Friday in observance of the New Year holiday, meaning that the new report accounts for a two-day period.

This week has been one for the record books for Florida cases — and not in a good way.

In Wednesday’s report, which covers Tuesday, 13,871 new COVID-19 cases were added, which now is the state’s fourth-highest one-day total. The day prior saw 12,075 new cases. The trio of steep rises to high totals marks the worst four-day stretch Florida has suffered in new cases since the pandemic emerged in early March.

And, before this week, the state’s previous one-day high was 15,300 new cases reported on July 12.

The positivity rate across the state remains high, reported at 12.95% on Thursday and 11.97% on Friday, compared to Wednesday’s 11.6%. Aside from the fluke high of 22.8% rate reported Tuesday on a small and apparently skewed sample of test results returned, the latest results were the highest Florida has seen in months.

There were 217 deaths confirmed over the two days, bringing the state’s coronavirus death toll to 21,890. There have also been 280 additional hospitalizations in the last two days.

The state’s current case toll including non-Florida residents is at 1,354,833.

Adding to the bad news, the new, more contagious strain first found in the UK is here, too.

The reported case is in a Martin County man in his 20s who hadn’t traveled, according to the Florida Department of Health. It is believed to be the first identified UK COVID-19 variant case in Florida.