Michael De Lucca, president, Broward Regional Health Planning Council, Inc.
Last week: During the 12-month period between July 2020 and July 2021, Florida celebrated 210,305 births, but also suffered 255,553 deaths. Florida’s natural population decrease was the biggest seen across the country. However, according to recent data released by the U.S. Census Bureau, Florida’s population grew by 1% during that timeframe, adding over 211,000 more residents. Florida’s population grew during the year due to migration. Over 220,000 people moved to Florida from other states, making Florida the nation’s top destination for domestic migration. Texas was second, with over 197,000 people moving in between July 2020 and July 2021.
Looking ahead: Over the past year, science had made significant improvements to the COVID-19 pandemic and the CDC, World Health Organization and local health officials continue to constantly update their policies and guidelines. As 2021 was the year vaccines were approved by the FDA, distributed globally and made easily accessible to residents in our community, in 2022, we will see more people vaccinated, experience shortened quarantine time periods and less people will contract the virus. This year will hopefully be the year our nation returns to a life prior to the pandemic, and COVID-19 will cause less serious illnesses and deaths.