Seth Johnson
Update (10:50 a.m. Saturday): In a Friday night Facebook post, Gainesville City Commissioner David Arreola also disclosed that he has tested positive for COVID-19.
“I feel far worse than I did the first time I caught COVID,” Arreola wrote. “I feel totally out of sorts.”
Our original story:
Gainesville Mayor Lauren Poe announced Friday that he tested positive for COVID-19 for the first time.
The news came a day after Poe attended Thursday’s commission meeting via Zoom.
“I have tested positive for COVID,” Poe tweeted Friday afternoon. “I feel pretty terrible and am isolating.”
In a text Poe confirmed he has not previously tested positive and that he has had booster shot.
Poe joins the more than 69,000 Alachua County residents who have tested positive, according to state data.
The Florida Department of Health released data ending May 6 showing that Alachua County’s positivity rate nearly doubled since the last release, from 4.1% to 8.1%. The state switched from releasing weekly to bi-weekly reports, meaning the next numbers will come May 20.
Cases and hospitalizations remain well below January’s omicron wave that reached a high of 30.7%. However, the rise marked the second release in a row with rising positivity rates.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported in April that 60% of adults and 75% of children had already contracted COVID-19.