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For now, the official tally of COVID-19 cases in Polk County show modest increases for Saturday. In large part, that’s because the Florida Department of Health has switched from issuing reports twice a day to once a day — in the morning.
We’ve been using the evening reports for our daily updates, and the differences between Friday evening’s numbers and Saturday morning’s numbers showed minor changes, if any, for most categories — except in the category of testing, where there were a lot of new tests reported and a relatively small number of new cases.
We plan to post a new article mid-day after new numbers representing all of Saturday are released.
Along with the change of release times, the Florida Department of Health is releasing a new county-by-county series of charts. These had previously been available for a handful of counties but not for Polk. Here is the one for Polk that was released Saturday morning:
Overall numbers
Saturday morning’s totals compared with the previous day:
- Polk confirmed cases: 400, an increase of 7
- Lakeland confirmed cases: 157, an increase of 1
- Polk deaths: 18, unchanged
- Polk hospitalizations: 120, unchanged
Saturday was the first day out of the last six in which there were no new COVID-19 deaths reported in Polk County. The number of deaths in Polk has risen from 12 to 18 this week.
The numbers of confirmed cases and hospitalizations are cumulative and do not reflect how many people have recovered or have been released from the hospital.
Testing in Polk
- Total tested: 6,313, an increase of 288 over the previous day
- Positive: 400
- Negative: 5,904
- Inconclusive: 2
- Await results: 7
Long-term care facilities
- Cases involving Polk facilities: 63, up two from Friday
- Deaths involving Polk facilities: 8, unchanged
- Number of Polk facilities with reported cases: 6 | List
The number of positive cases is likely 10 times the official number, Polk County Health Department Director Joy Jackson told city commissioners recently. Those who test positive now probably contracted the disease two to three weeks ago, given the time it takes for symptoms to show and test results to be processed.
In addition, the numbers of people being tested remains tiny compared with Polk County’s estimated population of 708,000 people. A shortage of test kits means only people who meet CDC criteria are being tested.
ZIP Codes
Cases in Lakeland ZIP codes:
33801: 9
33803: 13, unchanged
33805: 27, unchanged
33809: 12, unchanged
33810: 14, unchanged
33811: 1 to 4
33812: 5
33813: 60, an increase of 1
33815: 7
View an interactive ZIP code map here. To find local ZIP code data, click on the “Cases by Zip Code” tab below the map and then scroll to Polk and click. Learn how ZIP code data is reported.
Cases in Polk cities
- Lakeland, 157
- Winter Haven, 64
- Davenport, 51
- Kissimmee, 32*
- Lake Wales, 18
- Auburndale, 14
- Mulberry, 9
- Haines City, 9
- Bartow, 9
- Fort Meade, 8
- Lake Alfred, 5
- Frostproof, 4
- Poinciana, 4
- Eagle Lake, 2
- Babson Park, 1
- Champions Gate, 1
- Cypress Gardens, 1
- Dundee, 1
- Indian Lakes Estates, 1
- Polk City, 1
- Wahneta, 1
* While Kissimmee is in Osceola County, the Health Department classifies a portion of east Polk as Kissimmee. It maintains a separate number for the Osceola portion of Kissimmee.
Download a full report for Saturday morning
Tracking the cases
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Excellent information…..
Informative, in-depth,concise.
Continue doing an excellent job.