The December deluge of COVID-19 infections for Polk County continued with Monday’s report of 286 newly confirmed cases.
The Florida Department of Health released that figure in its Monday afternoon update, reflecting tests processed the previous day. Polk County has exceeded 200 new infections every day during December except for Christmas Day, according the state agency’s data.
Meanwhile, the positive testing rate for Polk County continues to rise. Monday’s update reported a 14.6% positive rate for tests processed on Sunday, well above the 10% threshold the Department of Health has set as necessary to limit community spread of the virus.
That followed a rate of 13.51% for the update from Sunday. Polk County has exceeded the 10% rate on all but four of the past 14 days and has surpassed 9.5% on every one.