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Florida COVID Highs: 21,000+ New Daily Cases, 10,200+ Hospitalizations

WUSF | By Associated Press

Published August 1, 2021 at 7:04 PM EDT

Cars line up at Miami Dade College North campus' COVID-19 testing site, Thursday, July 29, 2021, in Miami. Hospital admissions of coronavirus patients continue to soar in Florida with at least two areas in the state surpassing previous peaks reached during last summer's surge.

The figures were released by federal officials. The records for new daily cases had stood since January and for hospitalizations since July 2020.

A day after reporting the most new daily cases since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Florida on Sunday broke a previous record for current hospitalizations set more than a year ago before vaccines were available.

Federal health officials said the state reported 21,683 new cases of COVID on Friday, the state’s highest one-day total since the start of the pandemic.

The Friday case count, released Saturday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, topped the previous high of 19,334 on Jan. 7, before vaccines were widely available.

Meantime, the Sunshine State had 10,207 people hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to data reported to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services on Sunday. The previous record was from more than a year ago, July 23, 2020, when the Florida Hospital Association said there were 10,170 hospitalizations.

The state has become the new national epicenter for the virus, accounting for around a fifth of all new cases in the U.S. Cases jumped 50% this week, continuing a six-week surge that federal officials said now makes up one in five new infections nationally,

Friday marked the fourth straight day the number of new cases topped 16,000 and the 10th straight day over 12,000. The average over the previous seven days was 15,817 cases.

The CDC also recorded 108 deaths related to COVID-19 in Florida on Friday.

More than 110,000 new cases were reported statewide over the week ending July 5, up from 73,000 the previous week and 11 times the 10,000 reported the week of June 11, six weeks ago.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has resisted mandatory mask mandates and vaccine requirements, and along with the Legislature, has limited local officials’ ability to impose measures meant to stop the spread of COVID-19.

On Friday, DeSantis issued an executive order preventing local districts from mandating mask-wearing by students in schools. He said it should up to parents to decide what is best for their children.