The state of Florida reported Thursday 26,811 new cases of covid-19 registered yesterday Wednesday, a figure that is close to the record in a single day of last August, according to official data, and in the midst of the accelerated expansion of the variant omicron.
The largest increase in cases registered in a day in Florida was 27,669 on August 26, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which this Thursday reported the second-highest since that date.
And this Tuesday the state reported 20,194 new infections to the CDC, the highest daily rise since Sept. 1.
If the number of infections continues to rise, the state could soon break the daily record, a sudden change after Florida has been reporting an average of 14,600 daily cases in the last seven days.
Experts say that the increase in cases is the result of the rapid spread of the omicron variant so that today and Wednesday long lines of vehicles have been seen in Miami-Dade County at test points. , most outdoors in county parks.
The mayor of Miami-Dade, Daniella Levine Cava, assured at a press conference that the central Tropical Park, which until late at night showed an endless line of cars, as it was found, will open this holiday Friday until 04:00 in the afternoon local time.
After weeks with an average of less than 2,000 daily cases of coronavirus in Florida, alarms jumped last Friday when 29,568 new infections were registered for the period from December 10 to 16, a figure much higher than the previous week (13,530 cases), and with the omicron, variant already detected in 39 US states.
The figures for new cases had remained somewhat stable this fall and well below the more than 21,000 daily reported this summer, which peaked in August with more than 150,000 weekly infections and a positivity rate of over 20 %.
But everything indicates that the speed of expansion of the omicron variant has changed the decreasing trend and, according to experts, it is very likely that its peak in Florida will be reached next February.
The rapidity with which this variant is spreading is such that, in Miami-Dade County, about 80% of new infections in the last two weeks are due to the omicron variant, according to David Andrews, a pathologist at the University of Miami (UM), picked up on Local channel 10.
The cases of omicron, the new variant of covid-19, could reach one million a day in the United States if measures are not adopted to contain its rapid advance, José Montero, an Atlanta-based CDC expert, warned this Thursday to Efe.
The 26,811 new cases reported by the CDC brought Florida’s total to more than 3,832,000 since the pandemic began, according to NBC Channel 6’s accounting, pending the Florida Department of Health released its weekly summary this week. Friday.
In its latest report, the state agency indicated that the number of vaccinated was 70% of the population.
