About 1 In 23 Floridians Have Tested Positive For Coronavirus

FLORIDA — Health officials say they're baffled over the cause of a recent surge in coronavirus cases in Florida that resulted in 61 more deaths Sunday.

Despite the state's most populated counties keeping face mask, indoor capacity and social distancing mandates in place, Florida, much like the rest of the United States, is seeing positive cases rise to peak levels reminiscent of the start of the pandemic.

Renewed fear has residents forming massive lines at major testing sites around the state.

As of Monday, 930,278 have tested positive for the coronavirus including 6,080 on Sunday, according to the Florida Department of Health. Of those, 53,499 people have been hospitalized and 18,310 people in the state have died.

To put that number into perspective, more people have died in Florida than the combined populations of Sebring, Crystal River and Apalachicola.

Using the 2020 U.S. Census statistics setting Florida's population as 22 million people, that means about one in 23 people in the state have tested positive and one in 1,200 have died.

Nevertheless, Florida still lags behind Texas where 1.13 million people have tested positive and California where 1.10 million are positive, according to Johns Hopkins University & Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center.

In a report by Patch breaking news editor Megan VerHeist, so many are dying in Texas that jail inmates are being paid to move bodies and the county has posted job openings for morgue attendants at a rate of $27 per hour.

A notice posted by the state warns those applying that "Not only is this assignment physically taxing, but it may be emotionally taxing as well."

On Saturday, the United States passed 12 million confirmed cases of coronavirus and on Friday the country recorded its highest single-day total ever with more than 196,000 new cases.

According to the CDC's COVID Data Tracker, as of Monday, 12,175,921 people in the country have tested positive for the coronavirus and 255,958 people have died.

But the week also brought hopeful news.

In a news release issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Friday, the FDA said it has scheduled a meeting Dec. 10 to discuss a COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. in partnership with BioNTech Manufacturing GmbH.

Pfizer has requested an emergency use authorization to get the vaccine on the market as soon as possible. FDA Commissioner Stephen M. Hahn, however, assured the public that the FDA won't skip critical steps.

“The FDA recognizes that transparency and dialogue are critical for the public to have confidence in COVID-19 vaccines. I want to assure the American people that the FDA’s process and evaluation of the data for a potential COVID-19 vaccine will be as open and transparent as possible,” Hahn said. "While we cannot predict how long the FDA’s review will take, the FDA will review the request as expeditiously as possible, while still doing so in a thorough and science-based manner, so that we can help make available a vaccine that the American people deserve as soon as possible."

Pharmaceutical company Moderna is also preparing to hand over a vaccine to the FDA for approval. Both Moderna and Pfizer say their vaccines are 95 percent effective.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he'll be first in line to obtain a supply of the vaccine.

He's been told by federal officials that there should be 40 million does of vaccine available by the end of December. He said the first vaccines obtained by Florida will go to front-line workers and those in assisted living facilities. See the Florida Vaccination Plan.

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