Florida's COVID-19 case counts and hospitalizations are continuing to decline, and fewer counties are listed as being at high risk of transmission, according to recent federal and state data.
The number of residents testing positive dropped during the past two weeks, according to data released Friday by the state Department of Health.
The data showed that 43,703 people tested positive for COVID-10 from Aug. 19 through Thursday, after 45,416 tested positive the previous week. Those were the first weeks in more than two months that new cases totaled fewer than 50,000.
Hospitalizations for COVID-19 are on the decline. The Department of Health and Human Services reported Sunday that 3,291 people are hospitalized in Florida with COVID-19, down from 3,663 — about 10 percent — recorded a week ago.
The CDC's map of community vulnerability no longer recommends indoor masking in counties such as Palm Beach, Broward, Orange, Leon or most of the Panhandle. The CDC still recommends the safety measure in counties listed at high risk, including Hillsborough, Pinellas, Miami-Dade, Duval, Sarasota, Alachua, Polk, Martin and St. Lucie.
While the lastest surge - a product of omicron subvariants - seems to be heading down, new data showed that at least 79,573 Florida residents have died with COVID since the pandemic started in early 2020. That was up from a total of 78,559 in a report released Aug. 12. Because of lags in reporting, it is unclear when the additional deaths occurred.
Also, Florida passed more than 7 million total cases, likely over the weekend.
As of Saturday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's total for Florida was 7,004,963 cases. Florida crossed the mark about 3½ months after crossing 6 million on May 14 (see chart).
Floridians testing positive for coronavirus
| Apx date recorded | Time since previous milestone | |
| 1 | 3/1/2020 | |
| 1 million | 12/1/2020 | 9 months |
| 2 million | 3/27/2021 | Approx. 3 1/2 months |
| 3 million | 8/19/2021 | Approx. 5 months |
| 4 million | 12/27/2021 | Approx. 4 months |
| 5 million | 1/4/2022 | Approx. 2 weeks |
| 6 million | 5/14/2022 | Approx. 4 months |
| 7 million | 8/27/2022 | Approx. 3 1/2 months |
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Information from Health News Florida news editor Mark Schreiner and online producer Rick Mayer and News Service of Florida was used in this report.
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