Florida COVID cases increase by 66% in just one day; when will the increase affect Central Florida theme park operations?

The State of Florida has reported an even higher number of new COVID cases for yesterday than it did for Tuesday, according to The Orlando Sentinel. 

Florida had reported a record one-day number of COVID cases when the Delta variant of the novel coronavirus swept the nation and the globe over the summer. On August 26, Florida reported 27,802 new COVID cases, breaking its previous high number of cases for one day. On Christmas Eve, the Sunshine State broke its August 26 record by reporting a daily number of new COVID cases in the state: 31,758. Then on Christmas Day, that number was up by over 1,000 cases.

Yesterday, the State of Florida reported 46,923 new coronavirus cases, shattering its Christmas Day record number of cases by more than 14,000 infections. (Remember that cases reported are always for the previous day.)

Today, when the State of Florida’s reports were tallied, the number was nothing short of shocking. In only one day, the number of new COVID cases rose from 46,923 to 77,848–an increase of more than 30,000 cases, or 66%, from the previous day.

Credit: Palm Beach Post

The new record takes the state’s 7-day average for new cases to 36,781, meaning the average number has doubled in only one week. As of today, Florida has the fourth-highest number of daily new COVID cases in the nation.

More than 4,400 people are hospitalized in Florida with COVID-19 at this time, though many were hospitalized for other reasons and likely tested positive for COVID-19 once they were in the hospital.

With the number of cases of coronavirus increasing at such an alarming rate, it makes sense to ask the question: how long will Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando wait to make changes to their park capacities or to their large group setting offerings in entertainment? At this time, there is no word from either of the major theme park resorts about plans to decrease the number of Guests they will welcome through the gates, and also no word yet about changes to offerings in the parks at this time.