Jacob Ogles
Florida added nearly 10,000 new COVID-19 infections to its caseload, according to the most recent Department of Health report.
The state has now seen 1,589,097 individuals test positive for COVID-19 since the pandemic first surfaced here in March. That’s an increase of 9,816 cases since Monday. The total includes 1,560,015 Florida residents infected with the disease and 29,082 visitors tested here.
That’s a tally that now includes Rebekah Jones, the architect of a statewide dashboard tracking COVID-19 infections who since turned whistleblower on Department of Health transparency.
The numbers also include 24,820 who died after being infected with the coronavirus, most of those Florida residents but also 384 individuals who visited from outside of the state and died here. The total includes 163 new deaths reported overnight.
COVID-19 has sent 68,478 people to hospitals over the duration of the pandemic, a boost of 481 since Monday.
The state continues to see positivity rates north of 10% as it tests individuals statewide. The positivity rate on Monday was 11.83%, with reporting agencies adding 15,366 positive test results to state tallies and 114,514 negative results. The state hasn’t reported a positivity lower than 10% since before Christmas.
But the state has also continued to step up vaccinations. A total of 1,066,107 have now received at least one shot of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines, according to a state report released Tuesday. Of those, 100,351 have received a follow-up booster and completed the shot schedule, the first time that number has registered in six digits. The state tallied an additional 34,312 vaccinations overnight.
Gov. Ron DeSantis expressed hope to increase that number at a more rapid clip as every Publix in Lee and Palm Beach counties started to offer inoculations.
“It’s convenient,” he told reporters. “Not every senior’s going to drive halfway across town or halfway across a county to go to a drive-thru site. They need something that is more convenient.”
President-elect Joe Biden, who takes office on Wednesday, has set a goal of having 100 million Americans vaccinated in his first 100 days in office. The greater than 100,000 Floridians fully vaccinated represents about one tenth of a percent of the way toward that goal.
Editor’s note on methodology: The Florida Department of Health releases new data every morning around 10:45 a.m. The total number reported in those daily reports includes the previous day’s totals and the most up to date data as of about 9:30 a.m.
Florida Politics uses the report-over-report increase to document the number of new cases each day because it represents the most up-to-date data available. Some of the more specific data, including positivity rates and demographics, consider a different data set that includes only cases reported the previous day.
This is important to note because the DOH report lists different daily totals than our methodology to show day-over-day trends. Their numbers do not include nonresidents who tested positive in the state, and they only include single-day data. Therefore, some data in the DOH report may appear lower than what we report.
Our methodology was established based on careful consideration among our editorial staff to capture both the most recent and accurate trends.
