Kelly Hayes
The state of Florida confirmed an additional 5,688 cases of COVID-19 on Friday, according to Florida Department of Health data released Saturday afternoon.
The latest report marks five consecutive days the Sunshine State has recorded 5,000 new daily cases. Since the start of the pandemic, the state has seen 2,039,062 cases of COVID-19, made up of 2,001,325 Floridians and 37,737 non-residents.
The state also recorded 27 new deaths in the most recent dataset, as well as 155 additional hospitalizations. This brings the virus’ death toll in the state up to 33,783, including 33,142 Floridians and 641 non-residents.
Health officials on Friday processed an additional 108,182 tests for the virus, with 8,434 coming back positive for COVID-19, and creating a positivity rate of 7.80%. Health officials consider the spread of the virus contained if that rate stays below 10%. For only new cases among Florida residents, the positivity rate is slightly lower, at 6.27%%.
Florida also continues to lead to nation in the concentration of virus strains. A Thursday update from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed no increase in cases of variant mutations of the virus. The CDC reported Florida as having 1,042 cases of the B.1.1.7 variation and 23 instances of the P.1 variant. The state also has 10 cases of the B.1.351 strain.
Despite the relatively high daily caseloads the state has been reporting the past few days, the state continues to make strides in vaccination numbers.
As of Friday, 5,604,283 individuals have received at least one dose of the vaccine, including 3,075,333 who have been fully vaccinated. This breaks down further into 209,668 people who have received the one-and-done Johnson and Johnson vaccine, and 2,865,665 who have completed a two-dose series from either Moderna or Pfizer.
On Friday alone, the state recorded vaccinating 76,187 individuals.
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.
