COVID-19 pandemic in Florida

This article needs to be updated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (April 2022)

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On March 1, 2020, the U.S. state of Florida officially reported its first two COVID-19 cases in Manatee and Hillsborough counties. There is evidence, however, that community spread of COVID-19 first began in Florida much earlier, perhaps as early as the first week of January,^[6] with as many as 171 people in Florida who had shown symptoms now identified with COVID-19, prior to receiving confirmation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By March 11, the CDC saw evidence to conclude that community spread of the virus had occurred within the state.^[7]

On April 1, 2020, Governor Ron DeSantis issued an executive order to restrict activities within the state to those deemed as essential services.^[8] By June 2020, DeSantis had adopted a more targeted approach to the pandemic, declaring in mid-June that,

"We're not shutting down, we're gonna go forward, we're gonna continue to protect the most vulnerable....particularly when you have a virus that disproportionately impacts one segment of society, to suppress a lot of working-age people at this point I don't think would likely be very effective."^[9]

That targeted approach was similar to what the Great Barrington Declaration would recommend later in October.^[10] DeSantis got vaccinated voluntarily against COVID-19 and expressed enthusiasm for people getting their shots, but he has also opposed forcing people to do it.^[11]

On September 25, 2020, Florida lifted all remaining capacity restrictions on businesses, while also prohibiting local governments from enforcing public health orders with fines, or restricting restaurants to less than 50% capacity.^[12][13][14] According to the federal Center for Disease Control, life expectancy during 2020 dropped in Florida to 77.5 years, down from 79 years in 2019; that fall of 1.5 years in Florida compared to a nationwide fall of 1.8 years, "mostly due to the COVID-19 pandemic and increases in unintentional injuries," with those unintentional deaths being mostly attributable to drug overdoses.^[15][16][17]

As of September 16, 2021^[update], the Florida Department of Health had reported 3,485,163 COVID-19 cases^[ii] and 51,240 deaths^[iii] among residents of the state.^[18][5] Since the start of the pandemic through November 2022, 324 in 100,000 Floridians died of COVID-19.^[19] As of December 2021, among all US states Florida had the eighth-highest per capita case rate.^[19] As of July 2021, one in every five new COVID-19 cases recorded in the United States came from Florida.^[20] Vaccines have been administered in Florida since December 14, 2020. As of May 2, 2021^[update], Florida has administered 15,488,105 COVID-19 vaccine doses with 42% of the population having received at least one shot and 30% of the population being fully vaccinated.^[21]

Since 2021, Governor Ron DeSantis has placed restrictions on the use of COVID-19 mitigations by local governments and private businesses via executive order; the state has expressly voided and restricted any future restrictions imposed by local governments, prohibited any mandate applying to COVID-19 vaccines (including COVID-19 vaccination as a condition of entry or employment), and has controversially prohibited local governments and school boards from mandating that face masks be worn at schools—a policy which resulted in legal disputes.

As of Tuesday, April 19, 2022, more than 14,342,000 people had been fully vaccinated in Florida. On that date, the state had logged at least 5,888,264 cases and 73,738 deaths since the pandemic began in March 2020.^[22]

On February 15, 2023, the Florida Department of Health published a safety alert from the State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo warning of "a novel increase" in adverse event reports related to mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines.^[23]

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