Florida tops 74,000 weekly COVID cases in latest report

Florida has topped 74,000 COVID-19 cases in each of the past two weeks, while more than 75,000 residents have died from the virus, according to a report released Friday by the state Department of Health.

Florida had 74,323 reported cases during the week of June 10 through Thursday, slightly lower than the 74,401 reported the previous week.

Those numbers are the highest totals during the past 10 weeks. For example, the state had 15,604 reported cases during the week that started April 8 and 20,784 cases the following week, according to Department of Health data.

The report Friday also showed that at least 75,096 Florida residents have died of COVID-19 since early 2020.

The Florida Channel

On Thursday, the number of Florida hospital inpatients with COVID reached 3,500, continuing a steady increase, according to data released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The 3,500 inpatients were up from 3,413 the previous day and represented a 12.7 percent increase over the week before.

The data also showed 347 COVID patients were in intensive care, up from 336 the previous week.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's COVID-19 community levels, about 90 percent of the state's residents live in a county at “high risk” of transmitting the virus. Only a handful of Panhandle counties and five in southwest Florida are at "low" or "medium" risk.

The levels, measured over a seven-day period ending Thursday, are based on a combination of new cases per capita, testing positivity rates and hospitalizations.

At high level, the CDC recommends wearing a mask indoors in public and on public transportation, staying current on COVID vaccines and getting tested if showing symptoms. If you are at high risk for severe illness, consider taking additional precautions.

Florida in recent weeks has seen growing numbers of cases and hospitalizations as subvariants of the coronavirus have spread. The numbers, however, remain lower than early in the year when the omicron variant caused widespread infections.

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