Florida Surpasses 500,000 Coronavirus Cases; 7,627 Deaths

TALLAHASSEE, FL — Florida surpassed 500,000 confirmed coronavirus cases on Wednesday as health officials reported a total of 502,739 cases of the virus, an increase of 5,409 cases over the previous 24-hour period.

Florida health officials reported a total of 7,627 deaths from the virus as of Wednesday from 7,402 deaths a day earlier. That's an increase of 225 new deaths over the previous 24-hour period, which is among the largest one-day increases since the pandemic began. Florida's one-day record was set last Friday with 257 new deaths. State officials reported another four deaths involving non-Florida residents who died in the state.

Many of the test sites in the state were shut down last weekend ahead of then Hurricane Isaias but it was not clear how the temporary shutdown affected the total number of cases in the state. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said earlier that some test results have have taken as long as 10 to 14 days.

Health officials reported 28,573 hospitalizations, up from 27,952 hospitalizations over the previous 24 hours. That represents an increase of 621 more hospitalizations than reported a day earlier, which marks one of the highest one-day increases in hospitalizations since the start of the pandemic.

Thirty-one of Florida's 67 counties reported 221 new deaths Wednesday while Washington County reported one fewer death.

That compares with 245 new deaths on Tuesday, 74 new deaths Monday, 63 new deaths Sunday, 179 new deaths Saturday, 270 new deaths Friday (state health officials reported 257), 253 new deaths Thursday and 216 new deaths reported last Wednesday.

Miami-Dade County reported 51 new deaths. Palm Beach County reported 21 new deaths. Neighboring Broward County reported 18 new deaths. Those three counties are considered the epicenter of Florida's outbreak.

Seminole County reported 16 new deaths. Polk County reported 12 new deaths. St. Lucie County reported 11 new deaths. Brevard County reported nine new deaths as did Orange County.

Bay County reported eight new deaths as did Hillsborough County. Lake County reported seven new deaths as did Pinellas County. Escambia County reported six new deaths as did Leon County and Osceola County.

Lee County reported five new deaths. Martin County reported four new deaths. Pasco County reported three new deaths as did Pasco County and Volusia County. Duval County reported two new deaths as did Jackson County, Putnam County, Santa Rosa County and Sumter County.

Hamilton County reported one new death as did Hernando County, Manatee County, Sarasota County, St. Johns County and Suwannee County.

Florida reported a 13.16 percent positive test rate for the virus Wednesday as the number of tests reached 3,820,683.

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Miami-Dade, which includes Miami and Miami Beach, reported 125,076 cases of the virus. Nearby Broward County, which includes Fort Lauderdale, reported 59,354 cases. Palm Beach County, which includes Palm Beach, West Palm and Boca Raton, reported 35,283 cases.

Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa, reported 31,197 cases. Orange County, which includes Orlando, reported 30,425 cases.

In an effort to provide as much information to our readers as possible, Patch is publishing the following county-by-county breakdown of the coronavirus cases in Florida's 67 counties, along with the median age of patients, the number of hospital cases by county and the number of deaths.

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Patch updates this chart once each day based on data provided by the Florida Department of Health. The counties that reported new deaths on Wednesday are shown in bold.

Here is the most recent data:

This article originally appeared on the Miami Patch