Florida sees another 9,480 COVID-19 cases as president ups vaccine goal

ORLANDO, Fla. – Weekly cases of coronavirus in Florida have declined during the past two weeks but not because of the vaccine, at least not yet.

Central Florida’s largest county, Orange, has recently seen some improvements in case totals, hospitalizations and the recovery rate, but Florida Department of Health’s Dr. Raul Pino said it’s not due to the vaccine.

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“It’s very early for the vaccine to have any implications in the whole pandemic,” Pino said during Monday’s COVID-19 briefing in Orange County. “It will and it will have an impact but later on when we have the largest number of vaccinated.”

That’s because right now, Pino said the state is vaccinating only select groups, a majority who are 65 years or older.

“The vaccine right now is not making a difference at the larger level, the population level. It’s going to make a difference first for the people who are receiving and those who are 65 years old and out of those, we have more than 200,000 residents, and we only have done, 71,000 of those vaccines,” Pino said.

The Orange County health officer stressed the importance of wearing masks and social distancing, even for people who have received both the first COVID-19 shot and the booster, required for immunity.

President Joe Biden Biden has set a goal of 100 million COVID-19 shots given out in his first 100 days in office. The U.S. has exceeded a pace of 1 million doses per day during the past week.

“I think we may be able to get that to... 1.5 million a day, rather than 1 million a day,” Biden said Monday, “but we have to meet that goal of a million a day.”

Biden added that he expects widespread availability of the vaccines for Americans by spring, with the U.S. “well on our way to herd immunity” necessary to end the pandemic by summer. Even so, he warned the nation was going to be “in this for a while, and could see between “600,000 and 660,000 deaths before we begin to turn the corner in a major way.”

To find out if you’re eligible for a vaccine in Florida, click here.

[READ YESTERDAY’S REPORT: 8,607 new COVID-19 cases reported as Central Florida counties begin giving second doses of vaccine]

Below is a breakdown of Florida COVID-19 data reported by the state on Jan. 25.

Cases

The Florida Department of Health reported 9,480 new cases on Tuesday bringing the state’s overall total to 1,667,763 cases since the coronavirus pandemic began in March.

Deaths

Florida reported 231 new virus-related deaths Tuesday, raising the death toll to 26,080. This number includes the 407 non-residents who died in Florida.

Hospitalizations

As of Tuesday afternoon, there were currently 6,786 people with the virus hospitalized in Florida, according to the state Agency for Health Care Administration.

Since March, 70,802 people have been hospitalized in Florida after complications from COVID-19. That number includes the 456 new patients who have been recently hospitalized due to the virus, according to the health department’s daily report released on Tuesday.

Positivity rate

The percent of positive results was 9.19% Monday out of 103,208 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 Tuesday, 1,622,421 people have been vaccinated in Florida. The FDOH also reports that 175,841 people have received their second shot.

The state was originally reporting how many people were overdue for their second vaccination but has since removed that data point to align with the Centers for Disease Control guidelines.

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

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

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