Florida COVID update: State sees the largest multi-day case increase on record
Florida on Thursday reported 77,848 additional COVID-19 cases and 90 more deaths to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to Miami Herald calculations of CDC data. The large increase comes from the CDC backlogging cases and deaths for Florida on Mondays and Thursdays, when multiple days in the past had their totals changed.
In August, Florida began reporting cases by the “case date” rather than the date the case was logged into the system, resulting in a number of cases back-filling over time.
All but 59 of the newly reported cases — about 99.9% — occurred since Dec. 2, according to the Miami Herald analysis.
This is the largest multi-day increase of newly reported cases since the pandemic began in March 2020. The previous multi-day record was set during the height of the delta wave this past summer when 56,036 cases were reported on Aug. 16.
All but 26 of the newly reported deaths — about 71% — occurred since Dec. 2, according to the Herald analysis. About 50% of the newly reported have died in the past two weeks, the analysis showed.
In all, Florida has recorded at least 4,090,000 confirmed COVID cases and 62,480 deaths.
In the past seven days, as the omicron version of the virus has circulated, the state has added 19 deaths and 36,781 cases per day on average, according to Herald calculations. That rolling seven-day case average is the highest it’s ever been.
FLORIDA COVID VACCINE RATES
About 13,607,439 eligible Floridians — 63.4% of the state’s population — have completed the two-dose series of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines or have completed Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
VACCINATIONS IN SOUTH FLORIDA AND MANATEE COUNTY
Here’s how many people have been fully vaccinated in South Florida and Manatee County, according to the CDC.
▪ In Miami-Dade County, about 2,185,698 people, or 80.4% of the county’s total population, are fully vaccinated.
▪ In Broward County, about 1,321,817 people are fully vaccinated, or 67.7% of the county’s population.
▪ In Palm Beach County, about 948,218 people are fully vaccinated, or 63.4% of the county’s population.
▪ In Monroe County, about 55,375 people are fully vaccinated, or 74.6% of the county’s population.
▪ In Manatee County, about 237,870 people are fully vaccinated, or 59% of the county’s population.
COVID-19 Hospitalizations in Florida
There were 4,433 people hospitalized for COVID-19 in Florida, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Thursday report. This data is reported from 257 Florida hospitals. That’s 597 more than Wednesday’s report from 231 Florida hospitals.
COVID-19 patients take up 7.85% of all inpatient beds in the latest report, compared to 7.22% among Wednesday’s reporting hospitals.
Of the people hospitalized in Florida, 498 were in intensive care unit beds, an increase of 99 from Wednesday’s report. That represents about 8.03% of the state’s ICU hospital beds, compared to 7.45% the previous day.
Broward County’s Thursday report said there were 815 COVID patients in the county’s hospitals, an increase of 83 patients compared to Wednesday’s report.
This story was originally published December 30, 2021 at 1:42 PM with the headline "Florida COVID update: State sees the largest multi-day case increase on record."
%20Cropped%20(2).jpg)