Today’s COVID-19 reports from the Florida Department of Health contain the kind of news that a lot of people have been looking for: The nine new cases in Polk County are slightly below average for the last seven weeks while the 296 new tests are higher than average. No new deaths were reported for the first time since Tuesday.

Overall numbers

This morning’s totals compared with the previous day:

  • Polk confirmed cases: 523, an increase of 9
  • Lakeland confirmed cases: 215, an increase of 2
  • Polk deaths: 26, unchanged
  • Polk hospitalizations: 161, an increase of 1

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: 8,302, an increase of 296 over the previous day
  • Positive: 523, an increase of 9
  • Negative: 7,771
  • Inconclusive: 2
  • Await results: 6

Long-term care facilities

  • Cases involving Polk facilities: 111 were reported, unchanged since the last report on Friday
  • Deaths involving Polk facilities: 15, unchanged
  • Number of Polk facilities with reported cases: 8 | List

Lake Morton Plaza has been added to the list of Polk County long-term-care facilities reporting cases; a staff member there tested positive for COVID-19; no residents have reported positive, according to the report.

The number of positive cases is likely 10 times the official number, Polk County Health Department Director Joy Jackson told city commissioners.

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 that until recently only people showing severe symptoms and/or high risk were tested.

New Polk County data

The Florida Department of Health recently started releasing a new county-by-county series of charts. Today’s updates:

Click the image to view a larger version
Click the image to view a larger version

ZIP Codes

Cases in Lakeland ZIP codes:

33801: 15, unchanged
33803: 19, an increase of 1
33805: 36, unchanged
33809: 14, unchanged
33810: 20, an increase of 1
33811: 5, unchanged
33812: 5, unchanged
33813: 84, an increase of 1
33815: 9, a decrease of 1

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, 215
  • Winter Haven, 84
  • Davenport, 52
  • Kissimmee, 35*
  • Bartow, 24
  • Lake Wales, 21
  • Auburndale, 16
  • Haines City, 14
  • Mulberry, 10
  • Fort Meade, 9
  • Lake Alfred, 5
  • Frostproof, 4
  • Poinciana, 4
  • Dundee, 3
  • Eagle Lake, 2
  • Wahneta, 2
  • Kathleen, 1
  • Babson Park, 1
  • Bradley, 1
  • Champions Gate, 1
  • Cypress Gardens, 1
  • Indian Lakes Estates, 1
  • Polk City, 1
  • Lake Hamilton, 1
  • Lakeshore (formerly Fedhaven), 1
  • No city named, 6

* 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 the full Florida report released Sunday.

Tracking the cases

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Barry Friedman founded Lkldnow.com in 2015 as the culmination of a career in print and digital journalism. Since 1982, he has used the tools of reporting, editing and content curation to help people in Lakeland understand their community better.

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