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

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

Dr. Raul Pino, along with the Florida-Orange County Department of Health, said the transmission took place inside homes and among family members on Thursday, leading to a recent increase in the number of coronaviruses in Orange County.

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

“So, what we have seen the biggest increase at the moment is (patients aged 15 to 14, 35 and over). These are the two segments we are growing, significant increases. So these are the ages of the children and their parents. So, this is a clue, “Pino said of the home broadcast.

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

Dr. Barbara Jenkins, Orange County Superintendent, said the school district reported 90 new cases on Monday, the largest single-day increase to date.

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

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

In the US, the AAA predicts that approximately 85 million people will travel between December 23 and January 3, most by car. If true, it would be a drop of almost a third from a year ago, but still a massive movement of people in the midst of a pandemic.

Experts worry that Christmas and New Year’s Eve will turn into super-widespread events, as many people drop their guard – either because of pandemic fatigue or because of the hopeful news that vaccines are being 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 new cases on Friday, bringing the state’s total to 1,181,483 cases from March.

Editor’s note: Along with the resources previously used by News 6 (state and county by county since December 7, WKMG has added status data extracted from Florida COVID19, Florida Department of Health, 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 daily positivity rate of the state.

deaths

Florida reported 96 new virus deaths on Friday. That means at least 20,690 people have died in connection with the coronavirus throughout the state, including 289 nonresidents who died in Florida.

hospitalization

As of Friday afternoon, there is currently 5,182 people with the virus hospitalized in Florida, according to the state Agency for the administration of health care, an increase of approximately 55 patients within 24 hours.

From March, 59.602 People have been hospitalized in Florida after complications caused by coronavirus. That number includes the 311 people who were recently hospitalized because of the virus, according to a report by the health department.

Positivity rate

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

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

County	Cases	New cases	hospitalization	New hospitalization	deaths	We died
Brevard	18.729	218	1352	3	494	4
Flagler	3215	36	213	2	46	-1
Lake	13.157	191	919	16	283	7
Marion	15.647	214	1,250	8	431	1
oranges	67.577	791	1878	15	703	6
Osceola	22.593	240	1030	4	270	-2
Polk	32.809	377	3239	20	745	6
Seminole	16.097	159	872	2	302	1
Sumter	4313	92	364	2	109	0
Volusia	19.569	235	1221	10	400	2

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The Associated Press and Adrienne Cutway contributed to this report.