Amid concerns about the potent Delta variant of the coronavirus, the number of cases of COVID-19 jumped in Florida last week, according to a report issued Friday by the state Department of Health.
The report showed Florida had confirmed 2,361,360 cases as of Thursday, an increase of 23,747 cases from a week earlier. Florida during the past week also exceeded 38,000 resident deaths since the pandemic started in early 2020.
As of Thursday, it totaled 38,157 deaths, an increase of 172 deaths from a week earlier. The number of confirmed cases has increased during the past two weeks. During the week that ended July 1, Florida saw an increase of 15,684 cases. Increases in the three previous weeks ranged from 10,095 cases to 11,454 cases, according to Department of Health reports.
In addition to the number of new cases, the rate of infection continued its upward climb to 7.8% overall. Last week, the state crossed the former threshold for removing the mask mandate in Orange County.
Locally, the infection rate was even more dire. Volusia County fared the worst, with a positivity rate of 13.3%. Seminole County followed behind, with 12.4% of tests coming back positive. Osceola and Orange both hovered a little over 8%.
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This article appears in Jul 7-13, 2021.