Florida’s COVID-19 positivity rate drops below 5%, state reports of 4,600 new cases

ORLANDO, Fla. – Mass vaccination efforts continue throughout central Florida, with sites operated at both the federal and state levels offering doses to thousands of Floridians daily.

While the number of people vaccinated against the new coronavirus continues to rise, so does the total number of COVID-19 infections, with Florida close to 2 million confirmed cases since the start of the pandemic.

Central Florida has new weapons in its arsenal to continue the fight against coronavirus, including new vaccination sites and expanded eligibility requirements for the vaccine in some places.

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Announcements

Following an order from President Joe Biden to inoculate education and child care workers later this month, federal vaccination sites across Florida, including the FEMA-operated site in Orlando, are now offering the shots to members of these groups.

A recent executive order from the Ron DeSantis government limits the vaccine to teachers 50 years of age or older who work in kindergarten through 12th grade, but federal guidelines allow for vaccination of child workers, preschool teachers and primary, middle and secondary schools with no age limit.

Due to these federal guidelines, CVS, Publix, Walgreens, Winn-Dixie and Walmart pharmacies have expanded their eligibility, in addition to the federally operated site at Valencia College. K-12 educators and child care workers, regardless of age, can now also be inoculated at the Orange County Convention Center, after the site expanded its criteria on Friday.

Announcements

Click here for a complete list of sites that offer the vaccine under expanded criteria.

Florida also received the first round of shots from Johnson & Johnson on Thursday afternoon and on Friday morning they were already being administered at the FEMA site in Orlando and by Polk County law enforcement.

Saturday is the first weekend that the new FEMA-managed site is open in central Florida and is expected to be occupied. As of 3:30 a.m. Saturday, the site had already reached 75 percent capacity, officials said. The vaccine site was ready to administer 3,250 shots on Saturday.

Announcements

The state also partners with faith-based organizations to help bring vaccines to underserved communities.

You can find a complete list of vaccination sites throughout Central Florida here.

[READ YESTERDAY’S REPORT: Florida reports 5,900 new virus infections, state begins administering Johnson & Johnson vaccine]

Below is the state-managed COVID-19 dashboard:

Below is a breakdown of Florida COVID-19 data reported by the state on March 6th.

Announcements

Cases

The Florida Department of Health reported 4,684 new cases on Saturday, bringing the state’s overall total to 1,940,897 cases since the virus was first detected on March 1, 2020.

Deaths

Florida reported 107 new virus – related deaths on Saturday, increasing the number of deaths in 32,200. This number includes 580 non-residents who died in Florida.

Hospitalizations

As of Saturday afternoon, there were currently 3,352 people with the virus hospitalized in Florida, according to the state agency for health care administration.

As of March 1, 2020, 80,863 people have been hospitalized in Florida after complications of COVID-19. This number includes 231 us patients who have recently been hospitalized because of the virus, according to the health department’s daily report released Saturday.

Announcements

Positivity rate

The percentage of positive results was 4.91% Friday off 95,409 tests performed. The figures reported daily by the state reflect the results of the tests of the previous day. Health officials say the rate should be kept between 5% and 10% to show that a community has the virus and is curbing infections.

Vaccines

The Florida Department of Health began publishing a daily report in December on COVID-19 vaccines administered statewide.

Starting Saturday afternoon, 3,462,520 people have received at least the first dose of a coronavirus vaccine. The FDOH also reports this 1,902,314 people have received their second shot.

Announcements

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

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