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News about coronavirus in Florida and around the world is constantly emerging. It's hard to stay on top of it all but Health News Florida can help. Our responsibility is to keep you informed, and to help discern what’s important for your family as you make what could be life-saving decisions.

Florida posts new daily high number of COVID cases, surpassing the 4 million mark

The omicron variant is driving the latest spread, with Florida's seven-day average of new cases hitting 29,479 Tuesday, another record.

Florida marked two milestones in Wednesday's report of COVID-19 data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The state reported that 46,923 people tested positive for the coronavirus Tuesday — the largest single-day increase since the pandemic began.

It also brought the total number of cases in the state to 4,012,152.

No new deaths were added. The current number of deaths stands at 62,390.

The omicron variant is driving the latest spread, with Florida's seven-day average of new cases hitting 29,479 Tuesday, another record.

Nationally, the seven-day average topped 280,000 casesthis week,according to data from Johns Hopkins University's tracker. That's a record number of new cases in the country; the last time the number of cases hit a peak close to that was January.

The number of people hospitalized in Florida with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19 also jumped greatly, increasing by 688 Wednesday to 3,836.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the state has added 1,430 new hospitalizations in two days, an increase of 59% in that time.

In addition, 443 COVID-19 patients are in intensive care, just over 7.45% of Florida's staffed ICU beds. That's up 100 patients in two days.

Copyright 2021 WUSF Public Media - WUSF 89.7

Mark Schreiner has been the producer and reporter for "University Beat" on WUSF 89.7 FM since 2001 and on WUSF TV from 2007-2017.