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TAMPA, Fla. – The Florida Department of Health says the number of known cases of COVID-19 in the state has increased by 17,042 on Friday and Saturday. According to the state’s daily update, the total number of cases in Florida is now 1,264,588.
The death toll of Florida residents has reached 21,135, an increase of 140 since Thursday’s update. In addition, a total of 302 non-Florida residents died in the state.
Locally, Sarasota County reported 11 new deaths; Pinellas reported seven; Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco and Polk reported two each, while Citrus, Hernando, Highlands and Sumter reported one.
Of the 1,264,588 cases, 1,243,118 are Florida residents, while 21,470 are non-Florida residents currently in the state.
The numbers represent two days of reporting because no updates were made at Christmas.
Bay Area COVID-19 boxes by the numbers:
- Hillsborough: 73,980
- Pinellas: 42,973
- Sarasota: 17,748
- Manatee: 21,277
- Sumter: 4,754
- Polk: 35,393
- Citrus: 6,359
- Hernando: 6,981
- Pasco: 20,919
- Highlands: 4,785
- DeSoto: 2,835
- Hardee: 2,044
New cases of Florida residents in orange; new deaths of residents in gray. Note: Normally, deaths appear to be decreasing due to the delay in confirming data from the past few days. Source: Florida Department of Health.
The state does not report a total number of “recovered” coronavirus patients. On Saturday, 5,646 floridians were hospitalized for a primary diagnosis of COVID-19; in total, 61,288 were hospitalized for treatment at some point.
Vaccination efforts are increasing across the state. On Friday and Saturday, another 8,516 residents received the initial dose of the vaccine, totaling 113,946. No one has yet received their second and final dose.
LINK: County Florida Coronavirus Cases by County and Zip Code Map
Source: Florida Department of Health
The number of new cases had generally decreased in the fall, reflecting the number of tests being carried out. But it started to increase again. The 13,148 new cases reported last Thursday were the biggest single-day increase since July – just one more positive case than today’s number.
The rate of new positive tests has declined since the peak of summer, remaining below 10% for several months, but it has also started to increase again. It was at 8.0% on Friday, the most recent date available.
After reaching its peak in July, the number of deaths also started a downward trend in August, which continued until November – although “significant delays” in the release of data, as the state says, make the interpretation of the short-term trends of this statistic less reliable.
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Source: Florida Department of Health
PDF: COVID-19 full county report by DOH county
Editor’s note: The number of new cases and deaths reported each day does not necessarily reflect the day the case was confirmed. The state says that some private test labs dump large batches of test results that include cases from previous days, and the data can take days or weeks to validate. Today’s and previous days’ statistics are likely to change in the future as the state analyzes more cases and updates retroactive data.
The state’s death toll represents Florida’s permanent residents who died of COVID-19.
MAP: Florida coronavirus cases by county
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If you feel sick:
The Florida Department of Health opened a COVID-19 Call Center at 1-866-779-6121. Agents will answer questions 24 hours a day. Questions can also be sent to [email protected]. Email responses will be sent during the call center hours.
LINK: Florida COVID-19 website
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