COVID-19 cases rising again in Florida

Florida recorded more than 55,000 new cases of COVID-19 in the week through Wednesday, the highest seven-day total seen since the winter 2022 surge was waning in early February.

Florida’s latest case tally from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 55,390 over seven days through Wednesday, was a third higher than the week before. It tallied eight times as many cases as Florida recorded during the spring nadir in early April.

The week running through Wednesday represents the CDC’s most current data for all 50 states. Only California, with 77,000 cases, and New York, with 71,000, saw more new cases emerge during the week. Illinois was fourth with 42,000 new cases last week.

Florida has now topped 6 million confirmed COVID-19 cases through the 27-month pandemic. The Sunshine State’s total through Wednesday was 6,049,740.

COVID-19 deaths remain low in Florida.

During the most recent week, the CDC increased Florida’s confirmed fatality numbers by 137. That marked the fourth week in a row that the fatalities tally increased by less than 200. At the winter surge’s peak, Florida averaged adding more than 1,000 COVID-19 fatalities to its toll each week from late January through early March.

Then things got much better in March, and it looked as if COVID-19 was going away.

Through most of March and early April, Florida recorded fewer than 10,000 new cases per week. Florida recorded just 6,829 new COVID-19 cases in the first full week of April.

This year’s spring pattern seemed in sharp contrast with the spring of 2021 until recent weeks.

Through most of the spring of 2021, Florida saw about 30,000 cases per week for months until late May, when the numbers finally dropped into the 10,000 range. The summer 2021 surge hit in mid-July. Florida was averaging more than 100,000 new cases every seven days by August.

In the most recent week ending Wednesday, all 50 states saw their weekly COVID-19 case counts rise over the previous week.

Florida was one of 21 states that saw its weekly case count climb by at least 30% last week. Kansas, Kentucky, and Mississippi all saw more than 50% increases during the week. Among more populous states, Ohio’s case count jumped by 45%, and California’s by 29%.