It looks like the surge of COVID-19 cases in Florida have reached their peak. According to data reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from the State of Florida, rolling averages are starting to decline as health experts suggest Florida may have reached its peak COVID-19 surge.
For the past three weeks, Florida has averaged more than 20,000 new cases per day. An astonishing peak of 27,802 new cases was reached on August 26th, just a couple of days after Florida broke through the 26,000 barrier. Now, the 7-day moving average is below 21,000 for the first time since August 9th as patients admitted to Florida hospitals continues a 7-day decline.
Further data from the Florida Hospital Association reports a steady number of patients throughout various critical categories such as the Intensive Care Unit and ventilator usage. Other numbers are declining.
“In the past week our hospitals have seen roughly a ten percent decrease in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and a dramatic reduction in daily new COVID-19 admissions,” said Mary C. Mayhew, President and CEO, Florida Hospital Association. “The downward curve is significant, but we still have 50% more patients hospitalized now with COVID-19 than at the worst of the peak last year. Good news – yes! But we must keep up the battle against the virus and focus on vaccinations.”
This is generally good news for Florida as a whole and Central Florida specifically, which relies heavily on tourism to keep the economy churning. The Central Florida area theme parks have seen unbelievably low wait times in the second half of August as crowds fail to materialize due to a variety of factors such as kids going back to school and concerns over the Delta variant.
With the exception of a quick comment from Disney CEO Bob Chapek, Disney has largely avoided discussion or response to the Florida COVID-19 surge, attempting to continue business as usual as they look forward to their 50th Anniversary this October.
Disney World made face masks mandatory indoors following new guidance from the CDC, but other area theme parks didn’t follow suit. Disney will resume Annual Pass sales next week which should result in a bump in attendance following what Disney undoubtedly hopes will be a busy Labor Day Weekend.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!
