Fried: Florida Department of Health withholding weekend COVID-19 numbers

TAMPA, Fla. - After announcing last week she would release daily reports on new COVID-19 cases in Florida, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried says the Florida Department of Health was withholding data from the weekend as cases reached new record highs last week. 

Fried, who announced back in June she would run for governor for the state of Florida, said in a tweet Monday she would post new COVID-19 case data as soon as it was released by the "governor's health department." 

"We expect a large data dump of Florida COVID cases, hospitalizations, and tragically, deaths from this weekend to be published by the [CDC] tomorrow," Fried's tweet said, in part.

The Florida Hospital Association released its daily count of hospitalized COVID-19 patients Monday, with the number remaining above the 10,000 mark, at 10,389.

More than half of those hospitalized in Florida were between the ages of 25 and 55, with more than 95% of them being unvaccinated.

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The CDC's website showed no data from Florida over the last weekend of July into the first days of August, as of Monday, August 2

Florida registered its largest-ever single-day total of new COVID-19 cases -- 21,683 -- on Friday, according to data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

This is the first time the state has not reported daily case numbers. However, it is notable considering Florida accounted for 20% of all new cases in the US on the most recent day data was available.