The covid-19 registered almost 39,000 new infections to its account in Florida on the weekend of December 25 and 26, after having registered two historical records of daily cases on Thursday and Friday, according to data from the Centers for Control and Prevention ( CDC) of Diseases.
On Thursday 23 there were 31,000 new cases, on Friday 32,000, Saturday 21,040, and Sunday 17,995, according to data for Florida from the latest CDC report.
From December 17 to 24, according to the Florida Department of Health account, which provides a weekly report every Friday, there were 125,201 new cases of covid-19 in the state, which is about 95,000 more than in the previous seven days.
Florida, with more than 21 million inhabitants, is the third US state with the most accumulated covid-19 cases since March 2020 (3.93 million), only surpassed by California and Texas. As for the number of deaths, it is the fourth, with almost 63,000 in the entire pandemic.
According to the interactive dashboard on covid-19 of Johns Hopkins University, if the incidence data of the last 28 days is analyzed, Florida is the sixth state in the United States with the most cases (214,667 in that period), behind New York (498,164) Illinois, Ohio, California and Pennsylvania.
In the centers for free covid-19 tests in Florida for days the lines of cars are formed at dawn and vehicles do not stop arriving during the day.
In Miami-Dade, which has been the Florida county where the disease has had the highest incidence throughout the pandemic, home test packages began to be distributed through public libraries on Monday.
Street stalls for rapid tests and free PCR have also proliferated in the most touristy areas of Miami, such as the Brickell neighborhood, in the center of which, where hotels and tourist apartments proliferate.
“I know that together we will be able to defeat omicron as we did with delta through strong decisions based on data and simple measures to stop the spread,” Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava wrote in the last hours on Twitter.
HOSPITAL INCOME GOES UP
Ómicron is already the variant that causes the most infections in the United States, accounting for more than 70% of new cases, according to data published this Monday by the CDC.
Omicron appears to be less deadly than delta, the previous predominant variant, but its rapid expansion has increased hospital admissions in Florida, according to data from the US Department of Health and Human Services.
On Monday, December 27, there were 2,406 people hospitalized in Florida with covid-19, compared to 1,403 on December 13 and 1,298 on December 6.
In addition, there were 325 patients with covid-19 in intensive care units, while on December 13 there were 266 and on December 6 there were 265.
The models on the projection of the omicron variant in this state, such as the one carried out by the University of Florida (UF), indicate that the peak of this new wave can be reached in February with some 40,000 new infections daily.
The four possible scenarios analyzed by UF scientists coincide in that “the omicron variant will spread slowly in December, more rapidly in January, and will reach its peak in February,” says a report from said university.