73,000 Florida residents died of COVID-19 since the pandemic started

Tallahassee, Florida – According to a report issued Friday by the state Department of Health, more than 73,000 Florida residents have died of COVID-19 since the pandemic started in early 2020.

The report said 73,027 residents had died as of a Thursday count. That was up from 71,860 in a report issued on March 11.

It is not clear when the additional deaths occurred because of lags in reporting. The report also showed that newly reported cases of COVID-19 remain low after a massive surge in cases in December and January amid the spread of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

The state had 8,774 reported cases during the week of March 18 to Thursday. The total the previous week was 8,049.

By comparison, Florida had 286,791 cases during the week of Jan. 14 to Jan. 20.

After issuing the reports weekly during the past several months, the Department of Health has started issuing them every other week.