'Work to be done' as Florida's COVID-19 numbers continue decline from summertime peak
TAMPA, Fla. - Coronavirus case numbers, hospitalizations, and positivity rates are dropping across Florida. But despite the encouraging trend, health experts say, it's still too early to let our guard down.
The most recent data shows COVID-19 infections in Florida continue to drop from summer highs. The daily average of new cases last week was the lowest we've seen since the end of July.
The latest weekly total is about half of what the state was seeing in the middle of August, when more than 150,000 cases were confirmed for three weeks straight.
But experts at the University of South Florida say we shouldn't be cheering just yet.
"I don’t think it’s anything to pat ourselves on the back about because that’s still a really high number. We’d like to see a thousand or fewer cases a day and the fact that we’re still nearly at 11,000 per day is something that we have a lot of work left to be done," offered Jason Salemi, associate professor of epidemiology at USF Health.
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