The Florida Department of Health has reported that Osceola County has reached the benchmark of 300 COVID-19 cases.

As of Friday morning, the DOH was still reporting five deaths, the latest a 69-year-old male added to the tally on Thursday, and 84 virus-related hospitalizations, the same numbers as Thursday night.

A different dashboard with statistics about the area’s case growth rate shows that Osceola County’s number of cases, at the rate of new cases added this week, is now doubling between every 9.4 and 11 days. That number hovered around four last week, an encouraging sign that our community’s efforts of social distancing and staying at home could be working to flatten the curve.

The state is now reporting 17,531 cases, eighth in the country, and 390 deaths (10th) since track keeping began on March 1.