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Florida’s recent pandemic swell fueled by virus mutations and variants

ORLANDO, Fla. — Coronavirus cases across Florida and the U.S. are on the rise.

Nationwide, hospitalizations are 5% to 8% higher than they were last week.

Friday also marked the third day in a row with average daily deaths in the nation going up to more than 700 a day.

Watch: Florida COVID-19 vaccines in underserved communities improving, but hesitancy and gaps remain

Experts are pointing to the more contagious and possibly deadlier variants of the virus as a reason.

Public health experts say more than half of Florida’s cases are variations of the original virus.

Research is being done to develop booster shots for the different vaccines that have different success rates against different variants.

At the same time, funding is coming in to help us track down mutations faster.

Watch: Florida’s education commissioner calls for schools to remove mask mandates in the fall

The rise of more infectious strains has caused cases of COVID-19 to climb in recent weeks.

Florida still holds that unfortunate No. 1 spot for spread of the different strains.

Dr. Bruce Rankin with Accel Research oversaw the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccine trials in DeLand.

“The best word I can describe the last year as a marathon,” Rankin said.

Watch: COVID vaccines may help “long-haulers” with lingering symptoms, doctors say

That race continues because a lot of the pharmaceutical companies have now started trial work to get a possible booster shot on the market that better protects against COVID-19 variants.

The Biden administration is putting $1.7 billion from the American Rescue Plan toward helping states and jurisdictions find and fight these variants.

The Biden administration wants everyone to increase their genomic sequencing with COVID-19 testing.

Data show Florida has only done sequencing for less than 1% of all cases.

Florida is now getting almost $12.7 million to boost surveillance of these strains so they can stop their spread.

See the full report in the video above.