MIAMI — Florida has broken another record for COVID-19 cases in a 24-hour period, another grim benchmark of the highly contagious delta variant.
On Saturday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 23,903 new COVID-19 cases for Friday. The day before was another record-breaker: 22,783 new novel coronavirus cases.
Saturday’s data amounts to the highest single-day case count since the pandemic began last year as the state continues record-breaking hospitalizations for the sixth straight day in a row.
On Saturday, the state recorded 13,747 hospitalizations related to COVID-19, with 2,750 patients in intensive care units statewide.
On Saturday, the state also reported 93 new deaths, a day after reporting 199.
From July 30 to Aug. 5, Florida reported 134,506 cases, and 175 deaths, according to the Florida Department of Health’s weekly report released on Fridays. There were 24,086 more cases this week than last week, a 21 percent jump, and the percent positivity increased to 18.9 percent from 18.4 percent last week, the report said. High positivity rates indicate community spread.
There were 13,747 people hospitalized for COVID-19 in Florida, breaking the state’s hospitalization record for the sixth day in a row, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services as of 1 p.m. Saturday. A total of 253 out of 260 hospitals reported.
About 2,753 people were in intensive care, representing 43.27 percent of the state’s ICU hospital beds from 253 hospitals reporting. That percentage has been climbing with more hospitalizations.
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January was the worst month of the Florida pandemic, with daily case counts routinely topping 10,000. That followed a surge in July 2020, when daily case counts and hospitalizations also topped 10,000. Hospitalizations were higher in July 2020 over January because there was no vaccine yet. The latter half of July 2021 and early August is Florida’s third COVID-19 surge.
Cumulatively, Florida has recorded at least 2,725,450 confirmed COVID cases statewide and 39,695 deaths, according to the CDC.
Howard Cohen, Miami Herald