coronavirus deaths

Falling numbers may signal that the state has reached the peak of the omicron variant.

More than 430,000 people tested positive for coronavirus last week; at the same time, new case positivity rate dropped for the first time since early November.

The state had nearly 126,000 more people test positive since Friday.

The 76,887 new coronavirus cases brought the state's seven-day daily average to 56,759.

Between Sunday and Thursday, hospitalizations rose 55% to 8,406 people. Nearly 1,000 people were in intensive care beds.

USF Health expert Jason Salemi says omicron seems to be less deadly than delta, but cautions Floridians should still take the surge in cases seriously.

The state reported 31,758 new cases Friday and 32,850 Saturday, a 320% surge in weekly numbers. The surge has come with a rush to get tested ahead of the holidays, and that trend continued after Christmas.

It's the highest number of cases reported on one day since early September and comes just a day after the state reported more than 20,000 new cases.

The CDC reported 20,194 new cases were added since Tuesday's report, bringing the state's total to 3,799,661.

The positivity rate for the week more than doubled from 2.6% last week to 5.4% this week.

The research points to a range of causes of death that can strike in the year after a patient is hospitalized.

Johns Hopkins' dashboard reports 771,045 deaths since the pandemic began. According to the CDC, 385,343 deaths occurred last year, which would mean 385,702 have happened so far this year.