Florida COVID-19 caseload doubles in late March over early in the month

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the second time in March did not update its COVID-19 case and death counts for Florida. And once again, federal and state health officials did not explain why.

But the state published its latest numbers separately, showing infection tallies more than doubling in late March.

The CDC could not update its weekly COVID infection update for Florida because of a “potential technical issue,” it said Thursday. When asked Friday, CDC spokesman Nick Spinelli said to ask the Florida Department of Health. That department did not respond Friday to a request for comment either.

When the CDC last updated its total case count for Florida on March 23, it used numbers state health officials had published the week before that. Those numbers included about 16,000 cases the CDC had not previously recorded.

The state Health Department released its biweekly report Friday hinting at a higher statewide COVID caseload in the last two weeks of March than the two weeks before.

https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/2023/03/31/florida-covid-19-caseload-doubles-in-late-march-no-updates-from-cdc/70051975007/

I wonder if the "technical issue" could be related to Florida fudging their numbers and underreporting the total new cases. Wouldn't look good for DeSantis and the "free" state of Florida to report a significant surge in Covid cases.