ORLANDO, Fla. – As the demand for COVID-19 tests remains high, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration said things should start improving soon in Florida.
“But if you look what’s happening across the East Coast right now, in New York City, Washington, D.C., Maryland, probably Florida as well, have already peaked, maybe Delaware, Rhode Island,” said Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former FDA commissioner and a Pfizer board member. “You’re going to start to see that in the statistics this week, you’re going to start to see those curves, those epidemic curves, bend down.”
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His comments echo the latest modeling from the University of Florida, which also show cases will likely peak soon since omicron spread so rapidly in the community.
The updated study released Wednesday projects the end of the wave is near, but researchers at the university said it will get worse before it gets better. UF researchers believe we will peak this week.
Ira Longini, a biostatistics professor at the University of Florida and a coauthor in the study, predicts infections will reach about 80,000 cases per day.
The state reported 76,887 positive cases Thursday, marking a new all-time daily case record, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.