MIAMI — Florida on Thursday reported 54,994 additional COVID-19 cases and 262 more deaths to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to Miami Herald calculations of CDC data.
The CDC backlogs cases and deaths for Florida on Mondays and Thursdays, when multiple days in the past have their totals changed. In August, Florida began reporting cases and deaths by the “case date” and “death date” rather than the date they were logged into the system.
All but 31 of the newly reported deaths — about 88% — occurred since Dec. 16, according to the Herald analysis. About 66% of the newly reported have died in the past two weeks, the analysis showed.
This is the largest multi-day increase of deaths since Nov. 29, when 391 were reported.
In all, Florida has recorded at least 4,933,518 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 63,081 deaths.
In the past seven days, the state has added 66 deaths and 63,892 cases per day on average, according to Herald calculations.
COVID-19 hospitalizations in Florida
There were 11,590 people hospitalized for COVID-19 in Florida, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Thursday report. This data is reported from 256 Florida hospitals. The number of people hospitalized across the state is 212 more than the day prior, when 235 hospitals reported.
COVID-19 patients take up 19.98% of all inpatient beds in the latest report, compared to 20.41% among Tuesday’s reporting hospitals.
Omicron, so far, is not as deadly as delta’s surge last summer. Hospitalizations are approaching records set during delta’s wave from July through September.
At delta’s August peak, more than 15,000 patients were hospitalized in Florida, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
Of the people hospitalized in Florida, 1,475 were in intensive-care units, an increase of 36 from Wednesday. That represents about 23.10% of the state’s ICU beds, compared to 22.69% the previous day.
______
