ORLANDO, Fla. – Deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. have soared to more than 3,000 a day on average, matching the peak reached in April. That’s more deaths than D-Day or 9/11.
Health officials said the pandemic can only get worse with the Christmas and New Year’s holiday quickly approaching.
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Virtually every state is reporting surges just as a vaccine appears days away from getting the go-ahead in the United States.
The virus has been blamed for more than 285,000 deaths and 15 million confirmed infections across the country.
On Thursday, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel is widely expected to authorize emergency use of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, and shots could begin almost immediately after that.
Earlier this week, Britian started dispensing the Pfizer vaccine, becoming the first country in the West to begin mass vaccinations.
Still, any vaccination campaign will take many months, and U.S. health experts are warning of a continuing surge of infections in the coming weeks as people gather for the holidays.
[READ MORE: US coronavirus deaths hit record levels with the holidays ahead]
[READ YESTERDAY’S REPORT: Florida’s positivity rate climbs as FDA reviews potential coronavirus vaccine]
Below is a breakdown of Florida’s COVID-19 numbers for Thursday, Dec. 10.
Along with the resources previously utilized by News 6 (state and county-by-county data), as of Dec. 7, WKMG-TV 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 11,234 new cases on Thursday, bringing the state’s overall total to 1,094,697 cases since March.
Deaths
As of Thursday’s coronavirus report, a total of 19,851 deaths across the state have been related to the coronavirus, a number that includes 260 non-resident deaths in Florida. The state reported 135 new deaths Thursday.
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 Thursday afternoon, there are currently 4,550 people with the virus hospitalized in Florida, according to the state Agency for Health Care Administration.
In total, 57,469 people have been hospitalized in Florida after complications from the coronavirus. The state reported 258 new hospitalizations on Thursday.
Positivity rate
The positivity rate for tests reported Thursday is 8.07%. Over the past two weeks the state’s positivity rate has ranged from 6.24% to 9.22%.
Below is a county-by-county breakdown of COVID-19 data for the Central Florida region.
| County | Cases | New Cases | Hospitalizations | New Hospitalizations | Deaths | New Deaths |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brevard | 17,233 | 156 | 1,276 | 11 | 465 | 1 |
| Flagler | 2,968 | 23 | 204 | 1 | 46 | 1 |
| Lake | 11,798 | 169 | 884 | 2 | 265 | 0 |
| Marion | 14,424 | 178 | 1,206 | 1 | 413 | 4 |
| Orange | 61,697 | 642 | 1,803 | 14 | 677 | 25 |
| Osceola | 20,818 | 273 | 998 | 5 | 266 | 4 |
| Polk | 30,365 | 427 | 3,077 | 16 | 708 | 9 |
| Seminole | 14,765 | 162 | 859 | 1 | 291 | 2 |
| Sumter | 3,893 | 49 | 343 | 2 | 101 | 0 |
| Volusia | 18,042 | 167 | 1,168 | 10 | 388 | 2 |
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