MIAMI — Florida hit a new record in the pandemic for the second day in a row as the state reported 32,850 daily new cases on Christmas Day.
Only a day earlier, with 31,758 new daily cases reported, Florida broke its previous record of more than 27,000 cases set in August during the height of the delta wave in Florida.
The current surge is being driven by the spreading of the highly contagious omicron variant.
The swelling number of virus cases created demand for COVID-19 tests, even on Christmas Day when tests were almost as popular as eating a ham or drinking egg-nog-like coquito, for some.
At a testing site in Miami, dozens of cars lined up along the road connected to the entrance hours before it opened Christmas day, The Associated Press reports. To try to help alleviate the demand for testing, county workers sent out 12,500 at-home test kits Friday before supplies ran out at Miami-Dade libraries.
Earlier this month, President Joe Biden said the World Health Organization's discovery of the variant is a cause for concern, not panic.
He renewed his call for Americans to get COVID-19 booster shots. Health officials urged Americans to keep following standard COVID-19 precautions like social distancing and wearing masks indoors.