A key coronavirus statistic hit a new pandemic low again this week, new federal data shows.
Hospitals across Florida tended to an average of 674 COVID-positive patients each day during the week ending Friday, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department reported. That’s the lowest number of sick people in medical centers since recordkeeping began in July 2020.
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It’s the same estimated number of patients medical staff tended to on Friday, HHS reported. Hospitals had fewer than 700 COVID-positive patients on all but two days during the past two weeks.
Intensive care units had a daily average of 101 coronavirus patients during the past week, the third-lowest level. The lowest level of 99 was recorded Sunday and Monday.
Hospitals report COVID statistics to HHS. The state Agency for Health Care Administration stopped reporting daily statistics last June.
Florida has the highest 7-day averages of cases since early March
Florida logged an average of 2,240 new cases per day this week, the highest seven-day average the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported since March 2.
The seven-day average has grown daily since mid-March. The so-called “stealth omicron” subvariant, BA.2, is driving the latest increase. Yet it should not fuel a spike in hospitalizations and deaths, medical experts such as the nation’s top infectious disease specialist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, have said.
Most Americans have either gotten vaccinated or been infected by the main omicron strain, granting them some immunity against BA.2, Fauci and others say.
BA.2 comprises about 80% of coronavirus infections across the southeastern United States, the CDC estimates.
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Federal health officials have documented more than 5.8 million COVID-19 infections in Florida residents since the start of the pandemic.
New fatalities continue to decline. CDC data shows that the state’s death toll climbed by 151 residents since April 8, the last time the Florida Health Department published statistics. That’s the lowest seven-day increase since the week ending Dec. 24.
State health officials publish numbers every other week, down from weekly. Comparing data week to week requires analyzing both state reports and statistics the federal government collects from the state.
Almost 17 million Floridians have gotten at least one shot in the arm as of Thursday, the CDC says. That number is more than 1.5 million people higher than what the state reported April 8. But it does not mean inoculations increased by that amount.
The federal government reports much higher numbers than Florida health officials in part because the CDC counts federal personnel stationed in Florida, while the state Health Department might not.
The CDC has logged almost 5.7 million booster shots administered in Florida, compared with state health officials’ count of more than 5.1 million from April 8.
Chris Persaud is The Palm Beach Post’s data reporter. Email him at cpersaud@pbpost.com.
