Florida reports 59,515 COVID cases in 2 weeks as worldwide virus-related death estimates near 15M

ORLANDO, Fla. – Between April 29 and May 5, Florida has reported 59,515 cases of COVID-19 to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During that same period, the agency said almost 60% of Americans had been infected with the virus since its arrival in the U.S.

Days after that report, the World Health Organization would publish estimates claiming nearly 15 million deaths were associated with COVID in the last two years — mainly of those living in Southeast Asia, Europe and the Americas — over twice as high as the current, official death toll of 6 million.

[TRENDING: Become a News 6 Insider (it’s free!)]

More recently, global cases have generally continued to decline in the absence of significant surges after positives began falling in March at a relatively steady pace. The latest numbers from the WHO have worldwide COVID cases down 17% in the week spanning April 27 to May 4, with a 3% drop in deaths.

The WHO said Wednesday that COVID cases are falling everywhere besides Africa and the Americas, where cases rose by about a third and 13% respectively during that same week.

U.S. COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna have spent weeks now urging the Food and Drug Administration to review their plans to offer low-dose vaccines for young children. As it stands, the FDA has scheduled dates in June with those companies to review their applications, though it acknowledged that the dates were subject to changes.

Still, the past week saw Pfizer and Moderna report billions in revenue and soaring profits during the first quarter of 2022. Moderna’s revenue jumped from $1.73 billion last year to $5.92 billion, Pfizer’s beat Wall Street expectations at $25.66 billion, and they made discrete profits of $3.7 billion and $7.86 billion.

The CDC on Wednesday once again recommended that masks be worn on planes, trains and buses, and a federal transportation mask mandate stuck down in April by a Florida judge was appealed by the Justice Department a day prior.

Though cases are rising in the U.S., the response in cities such as New York and Boston has not included a return to indoor mask mandates. In spite of the CDC’s designation of these places as high-risk for community COVID-19 transmission, the numbed response on the ground is seen most simply as a sign of two years of COVID fatigue.

Adding to that weariness could be what’s now happening to some in U.S. hospitals, as a $20 billion government program to cover COVID-related testing, treatment and vaccine costs for uninsured people is no longer active, and similar, special Medicaid COVID coverage is only expected to last several more months. A recent proposal to inject $1.5 billion back into the uninsured program has failed to advance in Congress, and the program is no longer accepting new claims.

As lawmakers work to come to a compromise on President Biden’s $33 billion Ukraine aid request, that compromise is expected to eliminate any COVID-related spending tied to it.

Below is a breakdown of Florida COVID-19 data reported by the CDC and the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services on May 6:

Cases

The CDC reported 6,481 new cases on Friday, based on daily reporting it gets from the Florida Department of Health.

There were 59,515 new coronavirus cases in the state over the last two weeks, broken down as 26,534 cases last week and 32,981 this week.

Florida has seen 5,958,618 cases since the virus was first detected on March 1, 2020.

Deaths

The Florida Dept. of Health reported a cumulative death toll in Florida of 74,060. There were 230 fatalities recorded over the past two weeks, which we get by subtracting the number of deaths reported by DOH two weeks ago (73,830) from the current cumulative death toll.

The state stopped reporting the number of non-residents who died in Florida when the new weekly reporting method began.

Hospitalizations

The state Agency for Health Care Administration deleted its current COVID-19 hospitalization database and the state is no longer reporting how many patients have been hospitalized with the virus. However, Florida is still required to report that information to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the CDC continues to release that information online. The most recent hospital numbers show 750 adult and 11 pediatric patients in Florida.

Positivity rate

The Florida Dept. of Health reported the percent of positive results from coronavirus tests was at 26.2% for the week of April 29 - May 5 but did not provide how many people were tested during that time. Health officials say the rate should remain between 5% and 10% to prove a community has a hold of the virus and is curbing infections.

Below is the Central Florida region breakdown of new cases and new vaccination numbers between April 29 - May 5.

To keep up with the latest news on the pandemic, subscribe to News 6′s coronavirus newsletter and go to ClickOrlando.com/coronavirus.