coronavirus testing

The number of people testing positive reported Tuesday is more than four times higher than Monday's number.

The move will help relieve congestion at the University Mall site where thousands were showing up daily for vaccines.

The Florida Department of Health said 11,015 people statewide tested positive for the coronavirus since Sunday's report, including 2,342 people in the greater Tampa Bay region.

The pandemic has forced difficult conversations about the limits of tests. It has also revealed the catastrophic harms of failing to recognize those limits.

The Department of Health reported Friday that 125 more people in the state lost their lives to COVID-19, including 37 in the greater Tampa Bay region.

The state's death count from COVID-19 shot up by 100 people Thursday, bringing the total to 19,112.

Coronavirus continues its steady upward climb in Florida. With nearly 38,000 new cases this week, the state has added about 5,000 more new cases each week since mid-October.

In a letter to HHS and governors, Sen. Rick Scott sought accountability on how many antigen tests have been distributed to each state and how states are parceling them out.

The last time the statewide daily increase in infections was over 5,000 — not counting days where there were data issues — was September 1.

The number of new cases reported Saturday in the greater Tampa Bay region – 957 – also was the first time since Aug. 15 that the total of new cases in the area surpassed 900.

Assisted living facilities are slated to get 100,000 kits to test staff and visitors, and 180,000 are going to retirement communities, including Sun City Center.

Testing will be at no cost to farmers, farmworkers and family members, with Hillsborough and Miami-Dade counties as initial participants.