ORLANDO, Fla. – As the total number of COVID-19 infections in the Sunshine State nears 2 million, more and more Floridians are getting vaccinated as eligibility requirements continue to expand.
Florida also received its first round of Johnson & Johnson shots late Thursday and by Friday morning they were being administered at the FEMA site in Orlando and to law enforcement in Polk County.
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Following an order from President Joe Biden to get education and child care workers inoculated by the end of the month, federal vaccine sites throughout Florida, including the FEMA-operated site in Orlando, are now offering the shots to members of those groups.
A recent executive order from Gov. Ron DeSantis limits the vaccine to classroom teachers 50 and older who work in kindergarten through 12th grade but the federal guidelines allow day care workers, preschool teachers and educators in elementary, middle and high schools to be vaccinated with no age limit.
Click here for a full list of places offering the vaccine under expanded criteria.
Because of those federal guidelines, CVS, Publix, Walgreens, Winn-Dixie and Walmart pharmacies have all expanded their eligibility, in addition to the federally operated site at Valencia College.
A full list of vaccine sites throughout Central Florida can be found here.
[READ YESTERDAY’S REPORT: Vaccine eligibility expands as Florida reports 6,144 new COVID-19 cases]
Find the state-run COVID-19 dashboard below:
Below is a breakdown of Florida COVID-19 data reported by the state on March 5.
Cases
The Florida Department of Health reported 5,941 new cases on Friday, bringing the state’s overall total to 1,936,207 cases since the virus was first detected on March 1, 2020.
Deaths
Florida reported 138 new virus-related deaths Friday, raising the death toll to 32,093. This number includes the 571 non-residents who died in Florida.
Hospitalizations
As of Friday afternoon, there were currently 3,419 people with the virus hospitalized in Florida, according to the state Agency for Health Care Administration.
Since March 1, 2020, 80,632 people have been hospitalized in Florida after complications from COVID-19. That number includes the 294 new patients who have been recently hospitalized due to the virus, according to the health department’s daily report released on Friday.
Positivity rate
The percent of positive results was 5.12% Thursday out of 116,076 tests performed. The numbers reported daily by the state reflect test results from the day prior. 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 began releasing a daily report in December on COVID-19 vaccines administered throughout the state.
As of Friday afternoon, 3,362,212 people have received at least the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine. The FDOH also reports that 1,852,466 people have received their second shot.
See COVID-19 data for the Central Florida region below:
| County | Cases | New cases | Hospitalizations | New hospitalizations | Deaths | New deaths |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brevard | 34,549 | 115 | 2,038 | 5 | 761 | 10 |
| Flagler | 6,094 | 31 | 335 | 2 | 92 | 0 |
| Lake | 25,010 | 82 | 1,285 | 10 | 577 | 3 |
| Marion | 27,957 | 78 | 1,776 | 11 | 844 | 17 |
| Orange | 115,818 | 343 | 2,429 | 3 | 1,117 | 1 |
| Osceola | 37,291 | 103 | 1,295 | 3 | 453 | 4 |
| Polk | 57,852 | 197 | 4,437 | 10 | 1,164 | 0 |
| Seminole | 27,640 | 86 | 1,141 | 3 | 438 | 1 |
| Sumter | 8,147 | 22 | 510 | 1 | 243 | 0 |
| Volusia | 34,993 | 102 | 1,786 | 7 | 675 | 4 |
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