Florida tops 74,000 COVID-19 cases last week

Florida has topped 71,000 new COVID-19 cases in each of the past five weeks, a report released Friday by the state Department of Health shows. It has exceeded 73,000 reported cases in each of the past four weeks — including totaling 74,481 cases during the week that started June 24 and ended Thursday. 

The state has seen significant increases in COVID-19 cases during the past two months as subvariants of the coronavirus have spread. For example, the Department of Health reported 26,533 cases during the week that started on April 22. But the total has exceeded 60,000 cases every week since the week that started May 13. 

It had 71,704 cases during the week that started May 27; 74,389 cases during the week that started June 3; 74,299 cases during the week that started June 10; and 73,780 cases during the week that started June 17, according to the report. Also, the Department of Health data showed that, as of Thursday, a reported 75,891 Florida residents had died of COVID-19 since the pandemic started in 2020.

COVID-19 Inpatient Total Dips

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said Friday that 3,789 Florida hospital inpatients had COVID-19, down from 3,841 in a Thursday count. The new federal data also showed that 414 Florida inpatients with COVID-19 were in intensive-care units, up from 402 on Thursday. Numbers of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have increased in recent months as subvariants of the coronavirus spread.