Florida has registered its highest single-day COVID-19 case number as the Delta variant continues to run through predominantly unvaccinated communities.
The Miami Herald reported on Saturday that Florida saw 21,683 new COVID-19. This handily bests the state’s previous record of 19,334 on January 7, which occurred during what is regarded as the worst month for the pandemic in the U.S.
Florida has been seen as the epicenter for the new wave of the novel coronavirus pandemic, spurred on by the highly virulent Delta variant. Daily case numbers had been approaching record levels in recent days, 17,093 on Thursday and 17,589 on Friday. The state’s average for the past week has been 15,818 cases per day.
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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Florida has lead the U.S. in new cases in the last seven days with over 103,000. This well exceeds much larger states like Texas (47,159) and California (35,464), which have also been hit hard by the latest surge in COVID-19 cases.
The CDC’s community transmission tracker also lists nearly every county in Florida as having “high” levels of transmission, aside from Glades County, which is listed as “substantial.” Substantial is the threshold at which the CDC recommends that all residents, vaccinated and unvaccinated, wear masks indoors, according to its most recent mask guidance.
This is a developing story.
