Two Central Florida counties exceed 1,000 COVID-19 deaths

ORLANDO, Fla. – Both Polk and Orange counties reported 1,000 coronavirus-related deaths on Friday since the pandemic began. Both counties have now exceeded 1,000 virus deaths each.

This is happening as Florida seniors are still struggling to book appointments with the COVID-19 vaccine. Getting an appointment to receive the COVID-19 vaccine can be anything but quick and painless.

A Florida woman helps people she’s never met get on the coveted list.

Jenn Greenberg has helped dozens of seniors she has never met navigate the confusing, often chaotic, process of obtaining a COVID-19 vaccine.

Greenberg is part of a 120-member volunteer force that helps Florida residents 65 and older to remove the daunting hurdles of poorly organized, state-run registration systems that rely heavily on technology that it is often a foreign language to them.

[Here’s how to register for the COVID-19 vaccine in Florida]

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“I realized how many barriers there were, which made it very difficult to align schedules,” Greenberg said.

She says the systems not only negatively affect the elderly, but also exacerbate income and racial disparities.

Florida Representative Anna Eskamani (D-Orlando) says richer communities are already seeing more vaccination coverage than lower-income neighborhoods.

Click or tap here to learn more about the Greenburg initiative to help vaccinate the elderly.

New federal efforts could soon improve vaccine distribution as the Pentagon deploys more than 1,100 troops to five vaccination centers in what will be the first wave of increased military support for the White House campaign to inoculate Americans against COVID -19.

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Two of the five new military teams will go to open vaccination centers in California. Coronavirus senior adviser Andy Slavitt said military personnel would arrive at the site in just over a week. Three additional centers are expected to be announced soon.

[READ YESTERDAY’S REPORT: Florida reports 7,000 new COVID-19 cases as counties work to keep vaccine secure]

Cases

The Florida Department of Health reported 10,946 new cases on Friday, bringing the state’s total to 1,763,873 cases since the coronavirus pandemic began in March.

Death

Florida reported 215 new virus-related deaths on Friday, bringing the death toll to 27,913. This number includes 456 nonresidents who died in Florida.

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Hospitalizations

As of Friday afternoon, there were currently 5,428 people with the virus hospitalized in Florida, according to the State Agency for Health Care Administration.

Since March, 73,970 people have been hospitalized in Florida after complications from COVID-19. This number includes 339 new patients who were recently hospitalized because of the virus, according to the daily report of the health department published on Friday.

Positivity rate

The percentage of positive results was 5.8% for the 188,606 tests reported to the state. Health officials say the rate should remain between 5% and 10% to prove that a community has the virus and fights infections.

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Vaccinations

The Florida Department of Health recently began launching a daily report on statewide COVID-19 vaccines.

As of Friday afternoon, 1,894,209 people had been vaccinated in Florida. The FDOH also reports that 554,502 people received the second blow.

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

County	Cases	New cases	Hospitalizations	New hospitalizations	Death	We died
Brevard	30,459	306	1,840	7	666	3
Flagler	5,447	42	303	2	73	0
Lake	22,500	189	1,170	11	459	6
Marion	25,221	218	1,590	18	649	7
oranges	105,725	736	2.243	11	1.001	11
Osceola	34,315	216	1,211	4	384	-1
Polk	52,029	399	4,013	16	1,008	17
Seminol	24,764	129	1,057	5	386	1
Sumter	7,323	42	441	2	206	19
Volusia	31,863	187	1,557	10	542	1

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