Florida reports 55K new COVID cases, 262 deaths

Fort Lauderdale, Florida – According to the latest data posted by the CDC on Thursday, Florida added 55,573 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday.

The state’s death toll from the virus also increased by 262, rising to 63,081. Those deaths did not all happen within the past day and most are backlogged to previous dates.

Florida has verified at least 4,933,518 COVID-19 infections since the start of the pandemic.

The 55,573 new cases come after the state reported more than 71,000 of them a day earlier. The previous two days had been slightly below 50,000.

More than 11,000 patients were hospitalized with COVID-19 across the state on Wednesday, according to the Florida Hospital Association.

Infectious disease experts say it may not be long until the downturn of this omicron variant spike, though one expert predicts that about 80% of Floridians will have contracted COVID-19 by the end of this surge.

Omicron has been proven to be the most contagious variant of the pandemic, though it has not led to the number of hospitalizations and deaths as the delta variant did over the summer. More residents are also now vaccinated and have received booster shots.

The omicron variant is now estimated to account for more than 98% of new cases in the United States, according to the CDC. As recently as early December, omicron was estimated to account for only 0.6% of new cases.

Florida reported a record 397,114 new COVID-19 cases for the week of Dec. 31 through Jan. 6, an average of more than 56,000 per day.

The state’s full report from this week is set to be released Friday.