12,288 new cases reported in state

Florida reported 12,288 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, an 11% decrease from the day before.

But data released through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that after several days of not releasing death statistics, Florida added1,296 more deaths attributed to COVID. At least 48,273 Floridians have died of COVID since the start of the pandemic.

Deaths are included on the day they occur, and not the day they are reported, and can take up to two weeks or more to be reflected in the data.

The state is now averaging 14,177 new COVID-19 cases over a seven-day period, and is averaging 348 deaths over a seven-day period.

The rolling average of cases is roughly a 8.4% drop from the previous day and a 29% decline from a week earlier, according to the CDC data.

There are also fewer patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in Florida, down to 13,034 as of Thursday, a 3% decrease from the previous day. Those cases account for 22% of the available beds, with 83% of the state’s beds in use overall. Data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday also show that 3,087 ICU beds in the state were given to COVID19 patients, accounting for nearly half, or 46%, of the total ICU beds.

Here are the latest statistics:

Florida now ranks ninth in the nation for average daily COVID cases per capita, but first for a seven-day rolling average of daily COVID deaths per capita as of Sept. 9, according to New York Times data. According to the same data, Florida continues to rank first in the nation for the number of people hospitalized daily for COVID.

Florida ranks third in the number of overall COVID cases per capita, behind Tennessee (1) and North Dakota (2), and 13th for overall number of deaths per capita, according to New York Times data. As the summer surge of COVID fueled by the delta variant took its toll, the state rose in the ranking of overall deaths per capita, after hovering around 25 for months.

On Sept. 3, Florida reported a decline in its positivity rate, though it remains one of the highest in the nation. The positivity rate in Florida declined from 16.8% to 15.2%, an indication the state may have passed the peak of the delta surge.