HOLT, Fla., March 20, 2021—Florida’s total number of virus cases exceeded two million today.

The Sunshine State joins a small club of three states to have reached and passed this grim milestone.

California got there first, and now has more than 3.5 million total cases. Texas is next with 2.7 million.

Florida added 5,105 new cases today, bringing the total to 2,004,362.

March 3, 2020, marked the first two virus cases reported in the state. Since that time, Florida’s case count has increased daily with Jan. 8 hitting a single-day high of nearly 20,000.

Since the beginning of 2021, Florida has averaged more than 8,700 new cases each day. However, those numbers have come down since Jan. 8’s single-day peak of 19,530.

February’s average number of new cases was 6,694 a day, and so far this month, the average number of new virus cases per day is 5,125.

Statewide, virus-related deaths exceeded 33,000 March 16, and is averaging 146 deaths a day for 2021. However, March has shown a decrease with the monthly average at 97 virus-related deaths per day.

In Okaloosa County, numbers have slowly decreased since January with the average number of new cases per day for March at 36. Today’s database update listed only 13 new cases.

Vaccine news

Across the state, Florida has completed nearly 2.7 million vaccinations with Okaloosa County accounting for 26,225 of those.

Santa Rosa County has completed 36,000 vaccinations, Walton County 14,500 and Escambia County 61,500.

Okaloosa County residents eligible for the vaccine now include people 50 years and older.

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Related: “Vaccine eligibility age lowers to 50 Monday”

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Earlier this week during a news conference, Gov. Ron DeSantis stated vaccines should be available for anyone who wants one before May 1.

Okaloosa County*

• Fort Walton Beach 5,384
• Crestview 5,172
• Niceville 3,223
• Destin 1,981
• Mary Esther 917
• Shalimar 881
• Baker 589
• Laurel Hill 313
• Valparaiso 287
• Eglin Air Force Base 244
• Holt 215
• Hurlburt Field 101
• Cinco Bayou 47
• Choctaw Beach 13
• Duke Field 4
• Milligan 3
• Navarre 2
• Defuniak Springs 2
• Florala 1

Around the area

• Milton 8,382
• Pace 1,403
• Bagdad 32
• Jay 544
• Paxton 23
• DeFuniak Springs 2,061

Escambia County 34,537
Santa Rosa County 17,566
Walton County 7,241

*FROM FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH COVID-19 DATABASE