Florida has recorded nearly 1.5 million COVID-19 infections since the first case of the omicron variant was identified in the state six weeks ago. Last week the state hit a record 61,500 infections a day.
But the true number of infections is likely much higher.
“Throughout the pandemic we’ve never really known the true rate of spread of the infection,” said Jason Salemi, an epidemiologist at the University of South Florida. “It was horrible at the beginning of the pandemic, because we had no tests, then it got better during the course of the pandemic, but omicron is just a different beast.”
