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Florida reported 50,997 COVID-19 cases over the last three days to the federal government or an average of about 17,000 cases per day as the state continues to see the pandemic gain momentum.
The high case counts come after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Florida had more than 21,000 new coronavirus infections on Friday. It was the highest one-day total for Florida, which now makes up roughly one of five new cases nationally.
The surge in cases comes as the more infectious Delta variant is spreading. Just a month ago, Florida reported only 1,228 new cases for a single day on June 22.
Florida, which represents about 6.5% of the U.S. population, is accounting for about 19.2% of the country’s new cases, followed by Texas, which accounts for 14%.
The state also reported another 100 people died from the virus over the last three days, adding to the more than 39,000 who succumbed to COVID in Florida since the start of the pandemic.
Florida’s hospitals are struggling to keep up with the patients arriving with COVID — 11,863 people are hospitalized for COVID-19 in Florida. This volume represents the second day in a row the state broke its COVID hospitalization record, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.
About 1,100 people have been admitted to hospitals Miami Dade and also in Broward counties with COVID in the last seven days, the most of any counties in the U.S. The county with the next highest number of COVID admissions is Los Angeles County which has 8 million more residents.
Florida hospitals report the volume into their emergency rooms has increased faster than in previous waves last July and January.
Florida Hospital Association President Mary Mayhew told MSNBC Monday this wave of the COVID-19 pandemic ravaging Florida is different because the delta variant is putting many young people into intensive care and people are getting sicker faster than in previous waves.
