January 14 COVID data update

BY JENNIFER CABRERA

[Editor’s note: This information is provided to put the COVID-19 data in context and show trends. We are presenting the data as reported by Florida Department of Health with the understanding that the data is messy, and each day’s update changes multiple previous days. We believe that individuals should have access to as much information as possible so they can make decisions about their risks; you can find our opinions about government actions in the COVID-19 category on the site.]

According to the state dashboard, Alachua County reported an increase of 188 positive COVID-19 tests today, with an official test positivity rate of 7.10%. Two new deaths were reported.

The new deaths:

• 99-year-old female who visited an emergency room and was hospitalized; tested positive 12/14
• 93-year-old male, unknown emergency room and hospitalization; tested positive 12/19

Neither was in long-term care.

Of the people whose positive tests came back yesterday, 27 were 65 or older (this is the important number to track because those are the people who are more likely to have bad outcomes).

A total of 143 deaths have been reported in the county, 44 of which were in long-term care.

The overall number of people (from all counties) hospitalized here for COVID-19 increased from 231 to 256.

State COVID-19 hospitalizations increased from 7,582 (maybe a reporting error yesterday when it dropped) to 7,763 today.

The state reported 13,720 new positive tests (official positivity rate of 8.63%) and a net increase of 217 deaths, 67 of which were from long-term care facilities.

Changes in deaths were reported on 35 different dates, going back to April 3.

Changes in the number of deaths by month: April (+1), August (+2), October (+1), November (+1), December (+64), January (+148)

The peaks are on July 31 (235) and August 4 (239), and the 7-day moving average peak is August 5 (227).

Here is the full chart for context:

The state also publishes a chart of the percentage of new tests that are positive by day (this chart is for the whole state), showing the trend over the past 14 days.

This chart shows the trend in positivity rate for Alachua County.

This chart shows the number of negative tests reported in Alachua County by day, which gives an idea of the volume of testing:

The 7-day moving average of new cases is at 180.4 through yesterday’s cases. Here is the 7-day average of new cases for the past 14 days:

The state has vaccinated a total of 774,768 people (72,087 have received the complete series), and Alachua County has vaccinated 18,341 people (4,433 have received the complete series). Vaccines were administered first to healthcare and front-line workers, with vaccines being rolled out to people 65 and older now.

Here is the age distribution for the state, with gray bars showing yesterday’s vaccinations and the green bars showing cumulative vaccinations; age distribution for the county is not available: