ORLANDO, Fla. – Americans have been waiting for leaders in Washington to come up with and agree on a stimulus package that would once again help people struggling from the coronavirus pandemic.
Months after negotiations and revisions, an emerging $900 billion COVID-19 aid package has all but collapsed after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Republican senators won’t support $160 billion in state and local funds as part of a potential trade-off in the deal.
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Other legislative pile-ups now threaten Friday’s related business — a must-pass government funding bill. If it doesn’t clear Congress, that would trigger a federal government shutdown on Saturday.
The breakdown over the COVID aid package, after days of behind-the-scenes talks by a group of lawmakers fed up with inaction, comes as President Donald Trump has taken the talks in another direction — insisting on a fresh round of $600 stimulus checks for Americans.
This idea has caught the attention of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and has been embraced by some of the president’s fiercest critics.
The next deadline is Dec. 18, and both House and Senate leaders said they won’t adjourn until they pass a COVID-19 aid measure.
[READ MORE: Congress stuck, McConnell resists state aid in COVID-19 deal]
[READ YESTERDAY’S REPORT: Florida reports more than 11,000 new infections as nearly every state sees surge in coronavirus deaths]
Below is a breakdown of Florida’s COVID-19 numbers for Friday, Dec. 11.
Along with the resources previously utilized by News 6 (state and county-by-county data), as of Dec. 7, WKMG-TV has added state data pulled from the Florida Department of Health’s Florida COVID19 State Testing Totals. This new dataset includes the number of people tested the day prior, which is the number public health officials use to calculate the state’s daily positivity rate.
Cases
The Florida Department of Health reported 11,420 new cases on Friday, bringing the state’s overall total to more than 1.1 million cases since March. Of those new cases, 2,417 were reported in the Central Florida region.
This is the second day in a row the state reported more than 11,000 cases. Orange County’s top health official has warned we are now seeing cases related to the Thanksgiving holiday.
Deaths
The state reported 126 new virus deaths Friday, bringing the COVID-19 death toll to 19,977 deaths across the state, of those 263 are non-residents who died in Florida.
State health officials have always maintained that virus fatalities are often delayed in being reported to the FDOH, with some deaths not reported for a month or more.
Hospitalizations
As of Friday evening, there are currently 4,624 people with the virus hospitalized in Florida, according to the state Agency for Health Care Administration.
In total, 57,728 people have been hospitalized in Florida after complications from the coronavirus. The state reported 260 new hospitalizations on Friday.
Positivity rate
The positivity rate for the 144,466 tests reported Friday was 7.9%
Below is a county-by-county breakdown of COVID-19 data for the Central Florida region.
| County | Cases | New Cases | Hospitalizations | New Hospitalizations | Deaths | New Deaths |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brevard | 17,444 | 211 | 1,281 | 5 | 473 | 8 |
| Flagler | 2,995 | 27 | 205 | 1 | 46 | 0 |
| Lake | 11,985 | 187 | 889 | 5 | 267 | 2 |
| Marion | 14,598 | 174 | 1,207 | 1 | 413 | 0 |
| Orange | 62,522 | 825 | 1,809 | 6 | 678 | 1 |
| Osceola | 21,056 | 238 | 1,003 | 5 | 266 | 0 |
| Polk | 30,628 | 263 | 3,091 | 14 | 721 | 4 |
| Seminole | 14,982 | 217 | 860 | 1 | 294 | 3 |
| Sumter | 3,947 | 54 | 349 | 6 | 102 | 1 |
| Volusia | 18,239 | 197 | 1,175 | 7 | 389 | 1 |
To keep up with the latest news on the pandemic, subscribe to News 6′s coronavirus newsletter and go to ClickOrlando.com/coronavirus.