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FL has cut back on COVID data to the public, but you can still get daily info from the feds

Posted by Florida Trident staff | Diane Rado, Florida Phoenix

Last week, the Florida Department of Health decided to cut back on the detailed, daily counts of COVID-19 infections and deaths, instead reporting weekly data to the public though COVID continues despite vaccinations and a slowdown of cases.

But if you want to see data on a daily basis, you can go on the federal government’s website, at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Novel coronavirus SARS CoV2, which causes COVID-19. The virus is now creating mutations that are spreading in the United States and elsewhere. Credit: National Institute on Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

In a one-day picture of the latest CDC data, for example, Florida shows 1,184 new COVID cases based on June 7 and reported June 8 by the CDC. (Numbers can be updated and may be different from other entities, but this is CDC’s current count.)

The Phoenix reviewed numbers in all states in the one-day picture, and it showed that Florida’s 1,184 new COVID cases were the highest of the 50 states in the nation.

Keep in mind that overall, the data show that Florida overall is in about the middle of the pack when it comes to the rate of COVID infections in each of the 50 states, based on 100,000 people.

When the public sees the Florida Department of Health’s now-weekly report at the end of this week, it won’t provide the kind of detailed, one-day picture of what’s happening on the COVID front.

Since January 2020, the CDC data show that the highest number of COVID infections in Florida came in the early days of the New Year in 2021: 19,334 infections on Jan. 7 and 19,136 infections on Jan. 8 of this year.

Nationwide, the figure for the highest number of infections — 305,026 — was on Jan. 8, 2021, according to the CDC data.