Staff Reports
Florida has hit an all-time high level of new COVID-19 infections in time for Christmas.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 31,758 new COVID-19 cases in the Sunshine State on Friday, breaking the previous single-day record of 27,802, set in August during the summer delta variant surge.
Florida’s autumn lull in COVID-19 cases has been dissipating in the past week, mirroring a surge in cases nationwide from the omicron variant. As of Friday, at least 3,864,288 Floridians have been infected by COVID-19.
Tuesday’s federal data showed Florida confirmed 49,473 new cases in a seven day period. That was the first time since early October that Florida has seen more than 20,000 cases in seven days and the first time since late September that Florida has seen more than 40,000.
By Friday, the seven-day level of new infections topped 125,000. Florida is just shy of the top 10 states for per capita new infections, with 68 cases per 100,000 residents.
However, Florida ranks last in deaths, with 0.1 deaths per 100,000 residents. The state reported no new fatalities, leaving the death toll at 62,264.
Still, hospitalizations have been increasing. As of Friday, 1,781 adults were hospitalized, the most since October.
Vaccinations continue to tick upward, but the majority of shots administered were for boosters. As of Friday, 63% of Floridians are fully vaccinated.
Florida’s summer surge of COVID-19, driven by the delta variant, was the worst in the nation.
Florida’s pandemic had peaked at more than 150,000 cases per week for three weeks in August. That led to thousands of COVID-19 deaths recorded each week in Florida throughout September. The Sunshine State recorded more COVID-19 summer surge deaths than any other state and suffered the nation’s worst death rate for the summer.
Florida’s summer surge ended in September, though. And by mid-October, Florida’s caseload had fallen by 90%.
By late October and throughout November, Florida became the nation’s shining state on a hill. By Thanksgiving, Florida had the nation’s lowest infection rate: 56 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents.
Around then, the winter surge set in among Northern states, while Florida continued to see low infection rates and plummeting death rates.
5 comments
Alex
December 24, 2021 at 3:22 pm
Trump is now encouraging vaccinations – much to the consternation of the MAGA types.
Which way will our flake governor go?
Presidential run or being a good little puppy for Mango Mussolini?
zhombre
December 24, 2021 at 5:00 pm
Yawn. Buzzing cicada who accuses others of lack of substance spits out his usual stale tropes and petty insults.
Alex
December 24, 2021 at 6:32 pm
I can see you don’t care because you keep saying it again and again.
Tinesley
December 25, 2021 at 12:21 pm
In other words: regular cold and flu season has replaced the covid scare. Omincron, no more serious than a cold.
Dave
December 28, 2021 at 10:20 am
In Florida, about 60% of people are vaccinated. For those people, Omicron is less dangerous than the flu.
But people who are not vaccinated are still rolling the dice.
Remember also that about 200,000 people end up in the hospital each year with the flu, and about 20,000 of them die. So a regular flu season is nothing to sneeze at….
Comments are closed.