The positivity rate for COVID-19 testing in Polk County has spiked to 14.7%.
That was the figure in an update released late Friday afternoon by the Florida Department of Health. The agency normally issues statistics on COVID-19 every two weeks but missed the previous week’s update because of the New Year’s holiday.
The positivity rate had been at 10.9% in the Dec. 16 update, the first time it had surpassed 10% since early September.
The state disclosed 1,054 new COVID infections for Polk County from Dec. 30 to Jan. 5. That marked an increase of 35.1% from the last report issued three weeks earlier.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now lists Polk County as a medium for community levels of COVID-19, ending a long period in the low category.
The CDC dashboard shows 62.8% of Polk residents as having completed a primary series of vaccinations, while only 8% had received the latest booster dose.