For the second week in a row, all signs show the latest coronavirus surge shrinking across Florida, even as the school year starts and the least vaccinated age groups bunch together in classes.
Wastewater can reveal COVID trends faster than official case counts. Infected people often shed the most virus at the beginning of their infection. Sewage testing can give the public and health officials a five- to 10-day lead on the prevalence of new clinical cases.
Hospitals tended to about 3,539 COVID-positive patients Friday, the fewest since June 27, data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services shows.Health officials logged more than 45,000 new infections this past week statewide, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday. That's on par with caseloads from mid-May, before the latest viral surge fueled by the BA.5 subvariant of the coronavirus omicron mutation.
To avoid straining hospitals, the CDC still recommends masking indoors in 45 Florida counties, down from 64 last week. The CDC-reported Florida COVID death toll increased by 458 people since state health officials released their latest biweekly pandemic report Aug. 12. Fatalities can take weeks to enter official statistics.
The number of new deaths is higher than the weekly sums logged in April, which was between the original omicron wave and the ones caused by its subvariants. But it's lower than what was logged during the surge peaks of the omicron and delta variants, which saw the state's death toll rise by more than 1,000 weekly.