Florida marks another weekly increase in COVID cases

TAMPA, Fla. - COVID-19 cases have been slowly on the rise in Florida, but doctors say this latest increase differs from other variants.

Data from the Department of Health reports 20,860 new COVID-19 cases in Florida for the week of April 15. Cases have been going up since mid-March when the state reported 8,746 new cases during the week of March 18.

"So we're probably getting close to the peak right now. And at 3,000 cases a day, that's about five percent of what we were seeing in the omicron variant at the peak in the middle of January. So case numbers are not really going up nearly as quickly as they were previously," Dr. Thomas Unnasch, distinguished USF Health professor said.

Doctors point to hospitalizations as a key metric to watch during any increase.

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"I think the other important thing to note is that the hospitalization numbers are pretty much been totally flat through this whole latest uptick that we've seen. So even though people are getting infected, and they're finding out they are positive, there aren't that many people who are getting really, sick," Unnasch said.

Doctors attribute the increase to highly contagious variants and sub-variants but point to vaccinations and overall immunity for the slower rise.