New COVID-19 Cases Decline, Experts Say FL Is Past Peak: Report

FLORIDA — For the fifth day in a row, fewer than 50,000 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Florida.

According to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 43,179 new cases were reported in the Sunshine State for Tuesday. Another 33,032 cases were reported for Monday, 31,855 cases for Sunday, 47,228 cases for Saturday and 49,345 new cases for Friday.

While these numbers might still seem high, it marks a significant drop in the number of new cases reported during this COVID-19 surge.

In mid-December, coronavirus cases began increasing in Florida due to the spread of the highly contagious omicron variant.

During this surge, the state surpassed 5 million COVID-19 cases reported since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, as well as its record number of COVID-19 cases for one week — 430,297 cases reported between Jan. 7-13, according to data from the Florida Department of Health.

Florida also broke its record for the number of cases reported in a single day multiple times over the past month. Its highest number of cases, 77,075, was reported for Jan. 8.

Meanwhile, COVID-19 hospitalizations are starting to stabilize. While there were 11,560 COVID-19 hospitalizations Wednesday, that number has hovered around 11,000 people daily over the past week, according to data from the Florida Hospital Association.

“Our hospitals are seeing either a flattening or a decrease in hospitalizations for COVID. That is tremendous news,” Mary Mayhew, FHA president and CEO, told WPLG. “We are not seeing the level of acuity in terms of the need for ICU beds, and certainly the length of stay is less, so that is leading to individuals being in and out of the hospital much more quickly.”


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Some experts say Florida is near or past its peak in cases during this current surge.

“We are no longer seeing huge numbers of people coming in with COVID symptoms," said Dr. Marc Napp, chief medical officer for Memorial Healthcare System in Southeast Florida. "At our peak in the last wave, delta, which was our highest peak, we had 740 patients. We got up to 690, close to 700 this time, and we are now back down to the mid-600s.”

Despite the decline in the number of infections, hospitals and medical facilities are still scrambling to handle patients, Dr. Samer Fahmy, chief medical officer for Boca Raton Regional Hospital, told WPBF.

"Yes, we are down from the peak that we saw a week ago, and that’s encouraging, but we are still extremely high as compared to the average number of COVID patients in the hospital in the pandemic," he said. "This is putting a tremendous strain on our hospital."

Fahmy urged people to avoid busy hospitals unless it’s necessary, especially if they only have mild coronavirus symptoms.

"If you don’t need emergency services, please don’t use the emergency department as a testing site," he said. "The wait times in the ER are increasing because of the logjam we have in the hospital, and using that as a testing site if you’re feeling well otherwise or have mild symptoms is not the appropriate utilization of our emergency department."

This article originally appeared on the Miami Patch