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, 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.
On April 1, 2020, Governor Ron DeSantis issued an executive order to restrict activities within the state to those deemed as essential services. 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."Kennedy, John and Anderson, Zac. "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pledges to keep state open, downplays rise in coronavirus cases" , Palm Beach Post and USA Today (June 17, 2020). That targeted approach was similar to what the Great Barrington Declaration would recommend later in October.Hutzler, Alexandra. "Stanford Doctor Jay Bhattacharya Praises Ron DeSantis for COVID Response: 'He's Extraordinary'" , Newsweek (April 26, 2021). 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.Stanage, Niall. "DeSantis's record on COVID-19: Here's what he said and did" , The Hill (February 2, 2023).
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. According to the federal Centers 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.Sachs, Sam. "Floridians' life expectancy drops by 1.5 years, according to CDC" , WFLA-TV (August 2022).Arias, Elizabeth, et al."National Vital Statistics Reports, Volume 71, Number 2, U.S. State Life Tables, 2020" , Division of Vital Statistics, Centers for Disease Control (August 23, 2022).Montgomery, Ben. "How Florida's life expectancy declined in the pandemic" , Axios Tampa Bay (September 6, 2022).
, the Florida Department of Health had reported 3,485,163 COVID-19 cases and 51,240 deaths among residents of the state. Since the start of the pandemic through November 2022, 324 in 100,000 Floridians died of COVID-19. As of December 2021, among all US states Florida had the eighth-highest per capita case rate. As of July 2021, one in every five new COVID-19 cases recorded in the United States came from Florida. Vaccines have been administered in Florida since December 14, 2020. , 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.
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.
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.
Timeline
Initial cases (January–May 2020) February 29, 2020: Florida state health laboratories in Tampa, Jacksonville, and Miami are able to process COVID-19 tests locally rather than sending them to federal labs, cutting processing time from 3–5 days to 1–2 days.
March 1: Florida becomes the tenth state to confirm its first COVID-19 cases: one in Manatee County, and one in Hillsborough County with a woman who had recently returned from Italy.
March 3: The Florida Department of Health sets up a 24-hour COVID-19 hotline. A third presumptive positive case in Hillsborough County is reported.
March 5: A new case is announced involving an elderly man with severe underlying health conditions in Santa Rosa County who had recently traveled outside the United States. The Department of Health announces three new cases late on March 6, two in Broward County and one in Lee County. Officials also announce two deaths.
March 8: Publix starts to limit the amount of certain items per customer because some shoppers began to hoard items like toilet paper and other essential items.
March 9: Florida House members announce that five members attended a conference with infected COVID-19 participants. Governor DeSantis declares a State of Emergency. Princess Cruises terminates a planned stop of the cruise ship in Grand Cayman after it was discovered that two of its crew members had recently transferred from in California. The cruise ship is ordered to anchor off the coast of Fort Lauderdale while its passengers and crew could be tested for COVID-19. Furthermore, a fourth Princess Cruises cruise ship, , is placed on a "no sail order" off the Florida coast after it was discovered that two of its crew members had recently transferred from Grand Princess in California.
March 11: UF Health Shands Hospital confirm they are treating their first patient with a case of COVID-19, but decline to say whether it was the same person who tested positive for the virus earlier in the week. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) award Florida $27 million to help quell the pandemic.
March 13: It is confirmed that Mayor of Miami Francis Suarez had contracted the virus. The Department of Health confirms that an Orange County resident died in California after contracting COVID-19 while traveling.
March 14: Orlando International Airport confirms that one of its Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents had tested positive for COVID-19, bringing the total of TSA agents across the United States to have the virus to five after four other TSA agents at Mineta San Jose International Airport in California tested positive.
March 17: Governor DeSantis orders bars and nightclubs to close for 30 days, gyms announce that they would be closing, and the first medical group offers drive through COVID-19 testing in Central Florida.
March 18: Nineteen senior living facilities are suspected to be infected by the coronavirus. The state purchases 2,500 testing kits. In addition, congressman Mario Diaz-Balart from Miami tests positive for the coronavirus. After his diagnosis, he self-quarantines in his Washington, D.C. apartment.
March 20: A Pasco and a Broward County resident dies. A man who returned to California after visiting Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando approximately two weeks prior dies from the virus. DeSantis orders that restaurants use take-out and delivery only to prevent guests from eating at restaurants.
March 30: Although Florida law does not allow retired state personnel to return to work until six months after their retirement, DeSantis makes an exception and allows the retired healthcare and front line workers to come back to work In addition, he signs an Executive Order for Miami-Dade County, Broward County and Palm Beach County residents to stay at home. The Department of Education announces that schools will not be able to resume in person classes until at least May 1. After learning that some patients were leaving isolation and going out in public, the Seminole County requires those who were diagnosed with COVID-19 to stay at home until medically cleared.
April 1: DeSantis issues a statewide stay-at-home order following growing pressure to do so.
April 12: The Tampa Bay Times reported a discrepancy between the counts of COVID-19 deaths in the state: the Florida Department of Health had reported 419, while Florida's medical examiners reported 461. The health department counts only Florida residents and organizes the data by the person's place of residence (to avoid double-counting); in contrast, the medical examiners count anyone who dies in the state, which includes visitors. The health department's analysis causes several days of reporting delay, which is a further reason it is difficult to compare the numbers. In response to the Tampa Bay Times article, Florida officials stopped the release of the medical examiners' list, saying that it should be reviewed and possibly redacted, but did not publicly specify what exactly they wanted to redact.
April 17: DeSantis allows some Florida beaches to reopen if done safely.
April 18 It is announced that schools would remain closed for the remainder of the semester.
April 20: The Florida Department of Economic Opportunities releases a dashboard showing that 1.5 million unemployment claims were made during the last month. The Florida National Guard assists with COVID-19 sample collections at a State Nursing home for Veterans in Pembroke Pines. In addition, they have helped across Florida in more than 50,000 COVID-19 tests and numerous screenings at airports.
April 21: Flagler County announces its beaches would reopen for exercising and fishing but not socializing, and the sunbathing restriction was lifted on Brevard County.
May 4: The state of Florida removed 171 presumed COVID-19 cases with onset in January and February from its official COVID-19 database. The individuals were subsequently all still counted after they tested positive with CDC confirmation.
May 5: Rebekah Jones, a geographic data scientist involved in tracking cases for the state, is terminated from her position by the Florida Department of Health. Jones claimed that the Department of Health wanted data on Florida's coronavirus dashboard changed to support Governor Ron DeSantis' plans to resume economic activity. She further contended that she was fired for refusing to alter the information. A statement from DeSantis' office denied this, instead claiming that she was fired for insubordination and unilateral decision-making regarding her dashboard additions. DeSantis added that Jones contradicted state epidemiologists. In May 2021, Jones was granted whistleblower protection by the Florida Commission of Human Resources, but the investigation found allegations of retaliatory adverse action unsubstantiated and was closed in September 2022. Jones posted a forged version of the notice of termination she received claiming the commission found she disclosed and demonstrated violations of Florida Statutes and qualified her termination as legitimate and non-retaliatory under Florida Statute that classified her as employment as Selected Exempt Service, making her employment at-will. The authentic letter provided by the commission made no such claims. The Office of Inspector General later found her claims to be unsubstantiated or unfounded; those she accused were exonerated of any misconduct.