Florida has recently been seeing a surge in COVID-19 cases fueled by the delta variant, and the latest weekly report from the state's Department of Health shows a dramatic leap in cases.
The state reported 110,477 new COVID-19 cases between July 23 and July 29. That's a weekly average of 15,782 new cases a day. More than 18 percent of COVID tests taken during that period of time returned positive.
The state's overall total now sits at 2,590,699 cases since March 2020.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, Florida's surge in cases is happening more dramatically than previous cases throughout the pandemic. The state's current seven-day moving average for new cases hasn't been seen since the winter. A time when Florida saw its worst outbreak of cases.
The number of patients being hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 cases is also mirroring the wintertime peak, according to the CDC.
On Tuesday, the CDC reversed course on its masking recommendations for vaccinated people, urging that even they should continue wearing masks while indoors in parts of the U.S. where there's high transmission of the delta variant.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said most new infections continue to be among unvaccinated people. But "breakthrough" infections, which generally cause milder illness, can occur in vaccinated people. The delta variant has shown that the level of virus in infected vaccinated people is "indistinguishable” from the level of virus in the noses and throats of unvaccinated people, Walensky said.
This new data, Walensky said, prompted the change, and "it is concerning enough that we feel like we have to act."
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