A COVID-19 summer wave is officially here. According to the latest numbers from the Florida Department of Health (FDOH), Florida has seen a large jump in COVID-19 cases from May to June and health officials fear the July 4 holiday may produce yet another spike.
The FDOH reinstated its weekly reporting of COVID-19 cases earlier this year, but the data lags a week behind.
For the week ending on June 28, Escambia County’s COVID-19 cases dropped to 69 from 80 cases last week, a 13.75% drop after a 77.8% increase from the week prior.
Both counties broke from the upward trend the rest of the state is currently on. Florida COVID-19 cases went from 11,870 to 13,647, a 15% increase.
Here’s what to know about the latest COVID-19 information and what steps you can take to protect yourself from the disease.
How Escambia County’s COVID-19 numbers stack against Florida
Weekly COVID-19 cases in Escambia County dropped from 80 to 69 cases between June 22-28, which is still the most amount of cases the county has seen since the week of March 8. Experts, however, believe there may be a jump in cases over the July 4th holiday weekend.
Month over month, cases in Escambia County are up 230.4%, jumping from 69 cases in May to 228 in June. The county saw the most cases in January when there were 863 reported cases.
Year over year, Escambia could be on pace to match cases last year. The county had 228 cases in June 2023, the same as this year. Cases more than doubled in July 2023, reaching 508, before peaking in August at 1,248 positive cases.
In Florida, the state is reporting the most number of COVID-19 cases since February, when there were 46,512 reported cases. In June, the state saw a 158.4% increase in cases from May to June, going from 14,785 to 38,206.
Year over year, COVID-19 cases in the state are up. During last June, the state reported 28,446 cases, which shows a 34.3% jump.
How Santa Rosa County’s COVID-19 numbers stack against Florida
Meanwhile, COVID-19 cases in Santa Rosa County are also down slightly from the last report. Between June 22-28, the county saw numbers drop from 49 to 45, which is an 8.2% decline.
From May to June, Santa Rosa County COVID-19 cases show an increase similar to Escambia County and the rest of the state. Cases jumped from 86 in May to 171 in June, a 98.8% increase. Compared to last year, cases are up 15.4%.
What about new COVID variants
New variants of the virus keep emerging and the CDC reports that the KP.3 strain accounts for 33% of infections nationwide, followed by the KP.2 strain at nearly 21%. Another strain, LB. 1, accounts for nearly 18% of infections.
“We can tell you that the variant LB.1 has the potential to infect some people more easily based on a single deletion in a spike protein,” CDC Spokesperson Dave Daigle said in a statement to USA TODAY.
Daigle said that this spike of the LB.1 variant is like the ones seen in JN.1 lineages. Rosa Norman, a CDC spokesperson, previously told USA TODAY that JN.1 only saw a single change in spike unlike the KP.3 variant, a sub lineage of the JN.1, which had two changes in spike.
“One of the two changes in spike was observed in recent earlier lineages, including XBB.1.5 lineages, which were dominant throughout 2023 and the basis for the 2023–2024 vaccine formulation,” Norman said. “The second of the two changes were observed in some viruses circulating in fall 2021, but not since then.”
With the information that the CDC has available right now there’s no indication that the LB.1 variant poses a serious risk.
“There is currently no evidence that LB.1 causes more severe disease," Daigle said.
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