Holidays fuel Covid surge as Florida records 120,000 cases

Florida has ranked ninth among states where the virus spread the quickest

Covid-19 cases in Florida spiked after the holiday season, rising 332.9 percent with 124,865 new cases reported for the week that ended on Sunday, Florida Today reported.

An analysis by USA TODAY network of Johns Hopkins University data showed that Florida ranked ninth among states where the virus spread the quickest. The week before last, Florida reported 28,841 coronavirus cases.

But the Christmas traveling season also meant that Covid-19 deaths that would have otherwise been reported in the previous week might have been reported in the coming week. It is likely this will happen with the coming week’s reporting as people travel for New Year’s Eve.

Brevard County reported 1,214 cases when in the past week it had reported 298 cases. Meanwhile, the worst weekly outbreaks were in Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in the state, reported 1,930 cases per 100,000 per week, Broward County with 1,205 cases and Palm Beach County with 789 cases.

Miami-Dade County also had the most cases overall with 52,435 cases, followed by Broward County, which had 23,532 cases and Palm Beach County with 11,812. Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties all had the highest increases.

Florida reported 127 deaths for the week ending Sunday, which was a decline from the 194 the previous week.

The state’s Gov Ron DeSantis has taken a lax approach to Covid-19, opposing mask mandates and last month signed legislation allowing workers to opt out from vaccine mandates.