Florida reports 13,000 new COVID-19 infections as officials advocate for safe holiday behavior

ORLANDO, Fla. – One week before Christmas, Florida health care and school officials are calling for families to continue to observe social distancing during the holidays and not feed the spread of coronavirus, which is out of control in some parts. of the country.

Dr. Raul Pino, with the Florida Department of Health in Orange County, said Thursday’s transmission occurs in homes and among family members, prompting a recent increase in the county’s number of coronaviruses. of Orange.

He said the virus does not appear to be spreading in schools, but it appears to be spreading from children to parents and vice versa.

“So what we’ve seen increase the most right now is (patients 15 to 14, 35 years and older). These are the two segments we have that are increasing, increasing significantly. So it’s the age of children and his parents. So that’s a suggestion, ”Pino said of the transmission inside the house.

[RELATED: Orange County schools see increase in COVID-19 cases ahead of winter break | Winter travel raises more fears of viral spread]

Orange County Superintendent Dr. Barbara Jenkins said the school district reported 90 new cases Monday, the highest increase in a day to date.

“We are deeply concerned that these numbers are growing,” Jenkins said.

Tens of millions of people are expected to travel to family reunions or winter holidays over Christmas, despite requests from public health experts who fear the result could be another increase in COVID-19 cases.

In the U.S., AAA predicts that approximately 85 million people will travel between Dec. 23 and Jan. 3, most by car. If true, that would be a drop of almost a third from a year ago, but it would still be a massive movement of people amid a pandemic.

Experts worry that Christmas and New Year will become widespread events because many people are letting go of the guard, either because of pandemic fatigue or the hopeful news that vaccines are starting to be distributed.

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[READ YESTERDAY’S REPORT: Florida reports more than 13,100 new COVID-19 infections, most since mid-July]

Cases

The Florida Department of Health reported 13,019 on Friday, new cases were registered, bringing the state’s total to 1,181,483 cases since March.

Editor’s note: along with resources previously used by News 6 (state i county by county data), as of December 7, WKMG has added state data extracted from the file Florida Department of Health Florals, COVID19, Total State Tests. This new data set includes the number of people tested the day before, which is the number that public health officials use to calculate the state’s daily positivity rate.

Deaths

Florida reported 96 new viruses died Friday. That means at least 20,690 people have died in connection with the coronavirus statewide, including 289 non-residents who died in Florida.

Hospitalizations

As of Friday afternoon, there are some currently 5,182 people with the virus hospitalized in Florida, according to the state Health administration agency, an increase of about 55 patients in 24 hours.

Since March, 59,602 people have been hospitalized in Florida after coronavirus complications. That number includes 311 people who have recently been hospitalized because of the virus, according to the health department report.

Positivity rate

The positivity rate of the 148,718 tests reported on Friday was 8.75%. This statistic is the number of people who tested positive for the first time according to the results of tests reported on Thursday in the state.

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

county	Cases	New cases	Hospitalizations	New Hospitalizations	Deaths	New deaths
Brevard	18,729	218	1,352	3	494	4
Flagler	3.215	36	213	2	46	-1
lake	13.157	191	919	16	283	7
Marion	15,647	214	1,250	8	431	1
orange	67,577	791	1,878	15	703	6
Osceola	22,593	240	1,030	4	270	-2
Polk	32,809	377	3,239	20	745	6
Seminol	16,097	159	872	2	302	1
Sumter	4,313	92	364	2	109	0
Volusia	19,569	235	1,221	10	400	2

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The Associated Press and Adrienne Cutway contributed to this report.