Florida coronavirus: State reports record-high 3,207 new COVID-19 cases

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Florida reported more than 3,200 new coronavirus cases on Thursday – the largest single-day spike the state has seen since the beginning of the pandemic.

The numbers released by the Florida Department of Health Thursday morning show a 3,207-case increase, bringing the total number of cases statewide to 85,926. The death count increased by 43, bringing the death toll to 3,061.

Hospitalizations reached 12,577 on Thursday. That’s 188 more hospitalizations than were reported the previous day.

Florida has seen an increase of over 1,000 COVID-19 cases in 15 of the last 16 days. The first 2,000-plus case count was Saturday and was the highest spike the state had seen until Thursday.

Despite that spike, Gov. Ron DeSantis says the state will not be shutting down again. He says the recent increase can be attributed to increased testing.

The state’s cumulative percent positive increased slightly on Thursday to 5.7%. A total of 1,512,315 people have been tested. Of those tests, 85,926 have been positive.

The percent positivity for new cases – or the number of people who tested positive for the first time divided by all the people tested that day – was 8.8% on Wednesday. The total percent positive of all tests – including people who have been tested on multiple days – was 10.7%. State officials say a total of 28,838 people tested negative while 3,467 tests came back positive.

The United States has eclipsed 2.1 million cases of the virus, with over 117,000 deaths. In total, the world has seen over 8.3 million cases, with over 449,000 deaths.

Here is a county-by-county breakdown of cases across Tampa Bay: