Jacob Ogles
Department of Health officials report Florida has tallied more than 1.8 million coronavirus infections since the pandemic surfaced here in March.
That includes 1,774,013 positive tests for Florida residents, and another 32,792 for visitors who were tested while in the Sunshine State.
The totals, released by the state on Thursday, show an increase of 8,252 new cases not included in a Wednesday report.
Within that total lays a grim subset, with 28,871 individuals who died of COVID-related complications. That number, a 180-death increase overnight, includes 28,382 Florida residents, as well as 489 who live outside the state but died here.
There is also growing tension between the state and the White House over the spread of the pandemic in Florida. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report Florida has the most cases of any state of the B.1.1.7 mutated strain of the virus, with 343 of 932 known cases in the country.
The concentration of infections for the mutated virus has President Joe Biden’s administration considering travel restrictions on Florida and California. Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday suggested that was be unconstitutional.
“It would be unwise,” DeSantis said. “And it would be unjust.”
Positivity rates at the state level came in lower on Thursday, showing a downward trend even as there was an uptick in new cases. With 12,721 new positives reported on Thursday and 147,733 negatives, about 7.93% of tests showed coronavirus infections.
Thursday was the first day Florida tallied more than 150,000 new results since Feb. 4, which was also the last time positivity rates fell below 8%. The large number of negative tests reported contributed to low rates both days. Six of the past seven days, Florida’s statewide positive rate came in under 10%, the threshold under which health officials consider spread of the virus under control.
The rate on only new cases among Florida residents was 6.2%.
The state also reported on Thursday that 2,165,911 individuals have been administered at least one dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines for COVID-19. That’s 55,117 new inoculations reported since Wednesday.
A total of 1,274,170 individuals have received their first shot of vaccine, and 891,741 more have received a second dose to complete the shot schedule. More than 3 million doses of vaccine have now been administered by the state.
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 include the previous day’s totals as well as 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, considers 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.
