Florida added 15,978 coronavirus cases, 213 deaths in the past week

Florida officials reported 15,978 coronavirus cases over the seven-day period from June 25 to July 1. That’s a 35 percent increase in weekly cases from the last reporting period.

That brings the total number of cases up to 2,337,613 since the pandemic’s first two cases in Florida were reported on March 1, 2020, more than 16 months ago.

The state added 213 deaths since the previous week’s report, bringing the total statewide number of pandemic deaths to 37,985. It can take officials up to two weeks to confirm and report a coronavirus-related death.

The Florida Department of Health announced last month that it would no longer release daily COVID-19 data. Instead, it is now releasing a weekly report every Friday, but withholds information that was publicly available before.

As of June 4, the state no longer reports non-resident vaccinations, coronavirus cases and fatalities. The Florida Department of Health has declined repeated requests to provide non-resident data to the Tampa Bay Times.

“Florida is transitioning into the next phase of the COVID-19 response, and has shifted reporting to parallel this,” the agency said in a June 18 email to the Times. “Among reportable diseases monitored by the department, such as HIV and Hepatitis, it is not typical to calculate cases for non-Florida residents.”

Florida is the only state that updates its coronavirus caseloads and data once a week. Although weekly reports can be more reliable than daily updates, experts warn that infrequent data updates may delay identifying emerging trends.

Vaccinations: Florida administered 248,721 doses of vaccine in the past week. The number of first doses administered dropped to 111,220, the fourth consecutive week that first-dose vaccines have fallen.

So far 58 percent of Florida residents age 12 and up have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, according to the state. That’s a slight rise from 57 percent last week. Nearly 50 percent of eligible residents have been fully vaccinated.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 64.7 percent of Florida’s adults age 18 and up have been vaccinated, falling short of President Joe Biden’s goal of having 70 percent of adults at least partially vaccinated by July 4.

More than 83 percent of Floridians over the age of 65 have been vaccinated, and 73 percent of those ages 60 to 64, according to state data. Meanwhile, vaccination rates for those under 40 remain low. Only 30 percent of those 12 to 19 are vaccinated, while 37 percent of those 20 to 29 and 44 percent of those 30 to 39 have received the vaccine.

In Hillsborough County, 53 percent of residents age 12 and up have been vaccinated; in Pinellas, 57 percent; in Pasco, 54 percent; in Manatee, 56 percent; in Polk, 49 percent; in Hernando, 48 percent; and in Citrus, 50 percent.

Positivity: Florida’s positivity rate rose to 5.2 percent in the past week, up from 3.8 percent the week before.

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Before reopening, states should maintain a positivity rate of 5 percent or less for at least two weeks, according to the World Health Organization. A positivity rate of 5 percent or less indicates testing is widespread enough to capture mild, asymptomatic and negative cases.

Positivity rates were up across the board in the Tampa Bay area, where the positivity rate was 5.7 percent in Hillsborough, 3.7 percent in Pinellas, 4.9 percent in Pasco, 3.9 percent in Manatee, 5.9 percent in Polk, 5.8 percent in Hernando, and 5.4 percent in Citrus.

Hospitalizations: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 273 confirmed COVID-19 patients were admitted to Florida hospitals daily from June 24 to June 30, on average. The CDC did not provide up-to-date numbers on hospitalizations by county at the time of publication.

Local numbers: Tampa Bay added 2,444 cases in the past week, a 23 percent increase in weekly cases from the previous week. This brings the total number of cases in the Tampa Bay area to 409,208.

As of Thursday’s count, Hillsborough added 952 new cases, Pinellas had 393 cases, Pasco had 272 cases, Manatee had 139 cases, Polk had 506 cases, Hernando had 111 cases, and Citrus had 71 cases.

The state no longer reports deaths by county. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, Hillsborough, Pinellas, Polk, Manatee, Pasco, Hernando and Citrus counties each recorded fewer than 10 confirmed COVID-19 related deaths in the past week. The federal agency does not report exact deaths by county when the count is under 10.

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Tampa Bay Times coronavirus coverage

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