Florida reports 7,884 new COVID-19 cases on Martin Luther King Jr. Day

ORLANDO, Fla. – The controversy over who can get a coronavirus vaccine continues to grow as Miami’s mayor wants to reserve shots for people who live inside the city limits.

Federal regulations say there can’t be residency requirements for the vaccine. But Miami Mayor Francis Suarez asked the city manager and attorney “take all legal steps necessary” to prevent non-residents from receiving vaccines prior to the city’s elderly and vulnerable populations. Another state-run site is already set up at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami.

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Last week, Gov. Ron DeSantis brushed aside the idea of “vaccine tourism” or people coming to Florida simply to receive the shots before returning home. While there have been scattered reports of such interlopers, DeSantis said the nonresidents who are getting shots are almost entirely “snowbirds,” residents who live in the state for several months during the winter and who could infect others if they aren’t vaccinated.

“I think it’s totally fine if they wanted to” be vaccinated, the Republican governor said at a recent news conference. “It’s not like they’re just vacationing for two weeks. ... They have relationships with doctors. They get medical care in Florida. ... So that’s a little bit different than somebody that’s just doing tourism.”

Florida Department of Health data shows the number of people who do not reside full-time in Florida, but have received a vaccination here makes up less than 4% of the of people who have been vaccinated in the state.

This comes as now more than 1 million people in Florida have received at least their first dose of either the Moderna or Pfizer shots but only 91,000 have completed their inoculation with the necessary booster shot.

On Monday, which is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the testing site at the Orange County Convention Center had little to no wait. As of 11 a.m., the wait was 30 minutes or less.

Though some residents have reported concerns about when they will get their second shot, health officials said that it doesn’t matter if they’re late to get their booster but they shouldn’t get it early.

“There is no limit how far between the first and the second dosage you have to wait. You can wait more than 28 days, you can wait 30 days,” Dr. Raul Pino from the Florida Department of Health in Orange County said. “So what I’m trying to say to these people who are going to get very compulsive about being there on the 28th, if your appointment is beyond the 28th day it is absolutely fine.”

Below is a breakdown of Florida COVID-19 data reported by the state on Jan. 18.

[READ YESTERDAY’S REPORT: Florida reports 10,000 new COVID-19 cases, over 7,000 people currently hospitalized]

Cases

The Florida Department of Health reported 7,884 new cases on Monday, bringing the state’s overall total to 1,579,281 cases since the coronavirus pandemic began in March.

Deaths

Florida reported 142 new virus-related deaths Monday, raising the death toll to 24,657. This number includes the 383 non-residents who died in Florida.

Hospitalizations

As of Monday afternoon, there were currently 7,448 people with the virus hospitalized in Florida, according to the state Agency for Health Care Administration.

Since March, 68,170 people have been hospitalized in Florida after complications from COVID-19. That number includes the 173 new patients who have been recently hospitalized due to the virus, according to the health department’s daily report released on Monday.

Positivity rate

The percent of positive results was 9.19% Sunday out of 85,754 total tests reported to the state.

Health officials say the rate should remain between 5% and 10% to prove a community has a hold of the virus and is curbing infections.

Vaccinations

The Florida Department of Health recently began releasing a daily report on COVID-19 vaccines administered throughout the state.

As of Monday, 1,031,795 people have been vaccinated in Florida. The FDOH also reports that 93,258 people have received their second shot. However, 45,056 people are overdue for their second vaccination.

[Register for the COVID-19 vaccine in Florida here]

See COVID-19 data for the Central Florida region below:

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