Florida’s positivity rate climbs as FDA reviews potential coronavirus vaccine

ORLANDO, Fla. – A day before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to meet to discuss approval for Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine, British regulators are revealing new information about who shouldn’t get the shot.

The U.K.’s Medical and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency issued a warning Wednesday, saying people who have a history of serious allergic reactions shouldn’t get Pfizer’s vaccine because two people suffered adverse reactions. The pair received the shot Tuesday, during England’s “V-Day”’ the first day of its mass vaccination program.

Though regulators have not specified what their reactions were, they did reveal the two have a history of allergies and are recovering.

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In the meantime, the regulator has issued a warning for anyone who has had a significant allergic reaction to a vaccine, medicine or food to potentially avoid Pfizer’s vaccine until more data is collected.

This news comes after U.S. regulators released documents Tuesday confirming Pfizer’s vaccine was strongly protective against COVID-19 and appeared to be safe. The positive FDA review sets the stage for a decision allowing the vaccine’s initial use within days.

As the country braces for vaccine approval, U.S. COVID-19 deaths are hitting record levels. National data shows coronavirus-related deaths have soared to more than 2,200 deaths a day on average. Public health officials are concerned things could get worse ahead of the final holidays of the year.

With the focus shifting to a vaccine, local and state health officials are fine-tuning mass vaccination plans and distribution protocols. As leaders iron out the data, Central Florida is seeing a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases.

Several counties broke records with new cases reported Tuesday, but Orange County reported negative 1,750 cases, as well as negative hospitalizations and deaths. News 6 has reached out to the Florida Department of Health requesting clarification on the significant decrease in Orange County’s coronavirus data. As of Wednesday, WKMG has not heard back.

[READ YESTERDAY’S REPORT: Multiple Central Florida counties report hundreds of new COVID-19 cases]

Below is a breakdown of Florida’s COVID-19 numbers for Wednesday, Dec. 9.

Along with the resources previously utilized by News 6 (state and county-by-county data), as of Dec. 7, WKMG has added state data pulled from the Florida Department of Health’s Florida COVID19 State Testing Totals. This new dataset includes the number of people tested the day prior, which is the number public health officials use to calculate the state’s daily positivity rate.

Cases

The Florida Department of Health reported 9,442 new cases on Wednesday, bringing the state’s overall total to 1,083,362 cases since March. Of those new cases, 2,035 were reported in Central Florida.

Deaths

As of Wednesday’s coronavirus report, a total of 19,716 deaths across the state have been related to the coronavirus, a number that includes 254 non-resident deaths in Florida. The state reported 89 new deaths Wednesday.

State health officials have always maintained that virus fatalities are often delayed in being reported to the FDOH, with some deaths not reported for a month or more.

Hospitalizations

As of Wednesday afternoon, there are currently 4,559 people with the virus hospitalized in Florida, according to the state Agency for Health Care Administration.

In total, 57,210 people have been hospitalized in Florida after complications from the coronavirus. The state reported 304 new hospitalizations on Wednesday.

Positivity rate

The percent of positive results ranged from 6.22% to 9.15% over the past two weeks and was 8.64% for tests reported to the state Tuesday. The state last reported a positivity rate of 7.91%.

Below is a county-by-county breakdown of COVID-19 data for the Central Florida region.

To keep up with the latest news on the pandemic, subscribe to News 6′s coronavirus newsletter and go to ClickOrlando.com/coronavirus.