The Florida Department of Health website has a COVID-19 dashboard with county-by-county information about COVID-19 positive cases, deaths and vaccinations to the www.flhealthcharts.gov website.

Total new COVID-19 positive cases in Florida were: 1,317,419 cases in 2020; 2,934,038 in 2021; 3,071,980 cases in 2022; and 526,142 cases as of Nov. 3, 2023. New positive cases are only counted once per individual. If an individual has covid more than once, it still only counts as one new positive. Results from home tests are not included in the total.

New positive cases in the counties around Lake Okeechobee:

• Okeechobee County: 2,458 new positive cases in 2020; 5,357 new positive cases in 2021; 4,371 new positive cases in 2022; and 890 new positive cases in 2023;
• Hendry County: 3,329 new positive cases in 2020; 5,244 new positive cases in 2021; 4,947 new positive cases in 2022; and, 953 new positive cases in 2023;
• Glades County: 776 new positive cases in 2020; 746 new positive cases in 2021; 734 new positive cases in 2022; and, 133 new positive cases in 2023.
• Palm Beach County: 82,622 new positive cases in 2020; 190,963 new positive cases in 2021; 190,769 new positive cases in 2022; and 36,522 new positive cases in 2023.

Since the vaccines became available in December 2020, Florida residents have received 1,400,882 shots of COVID-19 vaccines. A person is considered having received a COVID-19 vaccination if they have received a dose of Janssen (J&J), Novavax, Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccines, or WHO authorized COVID-19 vaccines. Vaccine data are displayed by person. An individual is only counted once per year in this data. For example, a person who received the two-shot Moderna series in 2021 would only count as one shot in 2021.

Vaccine shots given in the counties around Lake Okeechobee (dashboard last updated Oct. 27):

• Okeechobee County: 395 shots in 2020; 20,156 shots in 2021; 6,610 shots in 2022; 1,364 shots in 2023.
• Hendry County: 111 shots in 2020; 22,455 shots in 2021; 7,986 shots in 2022; 1,440 shots in 2023.
• Glades County: 36 shots in 2020; 6,401 shots in 2021; 1,568 shots in 2022; 311 shots in 2023.
• Palm Beach County: 15,415 shots in 2020; 1,051,592 shots in 2021; 397,043 shots in 2022; 108,093 shots in 2023.               

According to the Florida Department of Health data, the state had 23,342 covid deaths in 2020; 39,861 covid deaths in 2021; 21,278 covid deaths in 2022; and, 7,644 covid deaths this year as of Nov. 3, 2023.  

Covid deaths in the counties around Lake Okeechobee:

• Okeechobee County: 50 covid deaths in 2020; 102 covid deaths in 2021; 38 covid deaths in 2022; 15 covid deaths in 2023:
• Hendry County: 55 covid deaths in 2020; 86 covid deaths in 2021; 31 covid deaths in 2022; 8 covid deaths in 2023;
• Glades County: 15 covid deaths in 2020; 19 covid deaths in 2021; 3 covid deaths in 2022; 1 covid death in 2023;
• Palm Beach CountyL 1,969 covid deaths in 2020; 2,394 covid deaths in 2021; 1,520 covid deaths in 2022; 563 covid deaths in 2023.