By The News Service of Florida
Florida has topped 90,000 resident deaths from COVID-19 since the pandemic started in 2020 and has seen an increase in cases in recent weeks, according to data released Friday by the state Department of Health. The state had 90,232 reported resident deaths as of Thursday, up from 89,905 deaths two weeks earlier. Because of lags in reporting, it is unclear when the additional deaths occurred.
The Department of Health releases COVID-19 data every two weeks. The data released Friday also showed the state had 23,503 reported new COVID-19 cases during the week that started Aug. 18 and 23,960 reported new cases during the week that started Aug. 25. Those were the highest numbers of the summer. As an example, the state had 7,320 reported new cases during the week that started June 23.