While new cases continue to decline, Florida has topped 81,000 resident deaths from COVID-19 since the pandemic started in 2020, according to a Florida Department of Health report.
As of Sept. 22, a reported 81,139 residents had died of COVID-19, data released Sept. 23 by the department shows. That total was up from 80,386 deaths in a report released two weeks earlier.
Because of lags in reporting, it is unclear when the additional deaths occurred.
The new data also showed a continued slowing in reported COVID-19 cases. Florida had a reported 17,438 new cases from Sept. 16 through Thursday and 22,913 new cases the previous week. By comparison, it had 76,011 new cases during the week that started July 15.