For the fifth time in eight days, Florida set a new daily high for total coronavirus cases Wednesday, reports said.
The state added a record 5,508 new infections Wednesday, up nearly 1,500 from the Sunshine State’s previous daily high on Saturday with 4,409 cases, the Miami Herald reported.
Florida now has a total of 109,014 cases, along with 44 new deaths, bringing the statewide death toll to 3,281, the outlet reported.
The numbers have been steadily climbing since last week, with record highs reported Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Just eight days ago on June 16, its record high for the entire pandemic was 2,783 cases and on Wednesday, that number nearly doubled.
New infections are only one indicator of the virus’ impact on the state but officials haven’t released complete numbers on current COVID-19 hospitalizations, saying they do not “have a figure” for that metric, the outlet reported.
Florida’s health department is only releasing the total number of hospitalizations, and Wednesday said 256 new admissions were recorded, bringing the total to 13,574, the outlet reported.
Some hospitals in Miami-Dade, one of the hardest-hit counties in Florida, are self-reporting metrics, and on Tuesday, hospitalizations there hit an all-time high for the second day straight with 818 patients, the outlet reported, citing Miami-Dade County’s “New Normal” dashboard data.
One Homestead infirmary reached ICU capacity Tuesday, but countywide, hospitals claim they have more beds open than beds used by COVID-19 patients, the outlet reported.
While the enormous jump in numbers has proved to be disconcerting, hospital officials are pointing to a small silver lining in the new data: Most of the new infections are being recorded in younger people and they are not as severely ill.
In addition, hospital administrators say they now have better insight into the virus than they did in April, making them better equipped to handle the infection.
The new figures come as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday announced that a 14-day quarantine will be imposed on travelers coming into the tri-state area from Florida and other places with growing infection numbers.