ORLANDO, Fla. – Florida will soon have two more tools to help fight the coronavirus as Walmart and Winn-Dixie are set to begin offering the COVID-19 vaccines in the coming days.

In the meantime with variants of the virus on the rise in Florida more than any other state, it’s important now more than ever to continue to follow pandemic precautions, according to epidemiologist Alvina Chu with the Orange County, Florida Department of Health.

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Florida has more than 200 cases of the U.K. COVID-19 variant. During Monday’s coronavirus briefing, Chu stressed that a virus, like the novel coronavirus, has one goal: to reproduce and infect as many people as possible and these mutations can help that goal by creating advantages to multiply faster.

“This is where we are with this race in getting vaccine and immunity to persons,” Chu said. “We’re essentially in a wildfire with a really good vaccine, which is our fire hose. And so, as much as you can get the fire under control at one level, containing the spread is what will help us gets the pandemic under control.”

[Here’s how to register for the COVID-19 vaccine in Florida]

Winn-Dixie begins offering appointments for the shots on Thursday.

Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said Monday Walmart has 17 potential stores in the county where it will offer the shots but has not rolled out its registration system.

“So as all of those types of community partners as they come online will increase inventory of vaccine within our community and, you know, the Walmarts, these are going to be kind of local neighborhood types of Walmarts where these locations will be,” Demings said.

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Below is a breakdown of Florida COVID-19 data reported by the state on Feb. 9.

Cases

The Florida Department of Health reported 7,041 new cases on Tuesday, bringing the state’s overall total to 1,790,743 cases since the coronavirus pandemic began in March.

Deaths

Florida reported 239 new virus-related deaths Tuesday, raising the death toll to 28,526. This number includes the 478 non-residents who died in Florida.

Hospitalizations

As of Tuesday afternoon, there were currently 5,307 people with the virus hospitalized in Florida, according to the state Agency for Health Care Administration.

Since March, 74,884 people have been hospitalized in Florida after complications from COVID-19. That number includes the 341 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 6.93% on Monday out of 101,609 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 afternoon, 2,057,154 people have been vaccinated in Florida. The FDOH also reports that 756,334 people have received their second shot.

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

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