Kelly Hayes
The Sunshine State confirmed 4,684 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, according to Florida Department of Health data released Saturday.
The latest report caps a week of single-day caseloads ranging from 5,400 to 7,000.
Despite the high number of new cases, the state’s positivity rate has gradually been declining, coming in at 6.64% on Friday — the lowest rate recorded in the past two weeks.
Florida saw 107 new deaths in Saturday’s report, as well as 231 additional hospitalizations. The virus has claimed the lives of 32,200 in Florida, including 31,620 residents and 580 nonresidents.
Since the start of the pandemic, the state has tallied 1,940,897 total cases of COVID-19, made up of 1,905,185 Floridians and 35,712 nonresidents.
The good news — the state has vaccinated 3,462,520 individuals so far, including 1,902,314 who have completed the two-dose series, and 3,560 who have received the one-dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine.
On Friday alone, the state vaccinated 63,418 people. The state’s vaccination rollout, in addition to targeting seniors, is now open to educators.
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.
