ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Coronavirus cases in Florida are on the rise again, mimicking a trend seen elsewhere in the country, though new hospitalizations remain low, recent data shows.
The seven-day moving average for new COVID-19 cases in Florida reached 37,132 cases on April 18, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's a level that hasn't been seen since early March following the sustained decline of infections brought on by the highly contagious omicron variant at the start of the year.
But an omicron subvariant called BA.2, considered 30 percent more contagious, is anticipated to further spread across the country in the days and weeks ahead, according to The Associated Press. So far, however, the subvariant is believed not to cause more severe illness.
That bit of good news, plus higher vaccination rates and more people exposed to coronavirus during the past few months, may prevent daily case counts from rapidly increasing and keep more people out of the hospital.
CDC data so far shows that's the case in Florida: the seven-day average of new hospitalizations in Florida is 127 people. The previous seven-day average was 103 people. Although the two figures represent an increase, they're far off the peak of 2,077 people seen in mid-January at the height of the omicron surge.
"We shouldn’t be thinking the pandemic is over," said Dr. Eric Topol, head of Scripps Research Translational Institute told The Associated Press. "We should still keep our guard up."
Philadelphia's indoor mask mandate remains in effect even as a federal judge this week voided the CDC's mandate on public transportation. In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis last year signed a law preventing private employer vaccine mandates and banning school face mask policies.