Florida surpasses 800,000 cases of COVID-19
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida reported 5,592 new coronavirus cases on Friday, the highest total in 2 1/2 months, continuing an upward trend of COVID-19 infections across the state.
With the latest numbers, Florida now has a pandemic total of 800,216 people who have tested positive for the disease. Almost 17,000 of them have died.
This is the fourth consecutive day with at least 4,000 infections, more proof that a resurgence is underway.
Friday’s data shows it’s the most new COVID-19 cases in one day since the state tallied 6,352 cases on Aug. 15. The state reported 7,569 cases on Sept. 1, but much of that was blamed on a backlog of thousands of lab results.
While cases are up, testing positivity for new infections only also rose above 5% according to the latest results for Florida residents. The 5.89% positivity reported Friday means that four out of the last five days have exceeded the level that experts say points to more virus spread.
The state Department of Health also reported that another 73 people have died from COVID-19. These fatalities mostly happened in recent weeks but were just reported to the state in the past day.
Overall, 16,927 people have died, including 207 non-residents who died in the state.
SOUTH FLORIDA
Broward County: 642 additional confirmed coronavirus cases and no more deaths. The county has a known total of 86,091 cases and 1,551 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. The death tally includes 29 non-residents.
Palm Beach County: 405 additional cases of COVID-19 and six more deaths. The county now has 52,184 confirmed cases and 1,610 deaths, including 24 non-residents.
Miami-Dade County: 883 additional confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 10 more deaths. The county now has 185,552 confirmed cases and 3,665 deaths, including 22 non-residents.
TESTING AND POSITIVITY RATES
Public health experts say the virus is considered under control when the COVID-19 test positivity rate is under 5%. “The higher the percent positive is, the more concerning it is,” say Johns Hopkins University epidemiologists. “As a rule of thumb, however, one threshold for the percent positive being ‘too high’ is 5%.”
Florida exceeds 5% by both of its measures of assessing the rate for testing of residents.
In the first calculation, the state reported a daily positivity rate of 5.89% on Friday, up from 4.87% on Thursday. This method of calculating positivity counts new infections only, but also counts repeat negative tests, which skews the figure downward.
According to the state, Friday’s new case numbers reflect the results of 92,466 COVID-19 tests of Florida residents received from labs in the past day, up from 85,266 results reported Thursday.
In the second calculation, which includes retests of people who were previously diagnosed, the statewide daily positivity rate is 7.22% based on the latest results for 100,318 residents. That’s up from 6.02% the previous day.
Broward County: Daily positivity rate of 5.62% for people with new infections only. That’s up from 5.51% the previous day.
Palm Beach County: Daily positivity rate of 5.53% for people with new infections only, down from 5.76% the previous day.
Miami Dade County: Daily positivity rate of 5.59% for people with new infections only. That’s up from 5.04% the previous day.
HOSPITALIZATIONS
The number of people hospitalized in Florida for COVID-19 remained mostly unchanged in the past day.
As of about 1 p.m. Friday, 2,349 people across the state were hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19, an increase of one.
In South Florida, Broward County reported 222 patients hospitalized, an increase of 17 from the previous day; Palm Beach County had 151, an increase of 13; and Miami-Dade had the most in the state with 310, a decrease of 28.
The online report from the state Agency for Health Care Administration updates several times throughout the day. Hospitalizations hit a peak in late July of about 9,500 patients.
Since the pandemic began, 49,185 residents have been hospitalized for the disease, state health officials say.
DEATHS
Statewide: Friday’s report shows a total of 16,720 Floridians dead. In addition, the deaths of 207 non-residents have been attributed to the virus.
Florida has the fourth-highest total of COVID-19 deaths among the states, after California, Texas and New York, according to the CDC.
Florida’s COVID-19 death rate since the pandemic began is ninth among states, tied with Illinois, at 78 deaths per 100,000 people, the CDC reports. That’s higher than the national rate of 69 deaths per 100,000.
Long-term-care facilities: At least 6,748 residents and staff have died at nursing homes and assisted-living centers throughout Florida. That’s 28 additional deaths in the past day.
Miami-Dade County has reported the highest number of deaths at long-term-care facilities, with 846. Palm Beach County is second with 721. Broward has reported 443 deaths.
NATIONAL AND GLOBAL VIEW
U.S.: At least 8.9 million people in the country have been infected with the novel coronavirus and 228,909 have died as of 12:30 p.m. Friday, according to Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 Dashboard.
World: At least 45.2 million people have tested positive for COVID-19 and 1,183,861 people have died from the disease, according to Johns Hopkins. The U.S. has had the most COVID-19 cases and deaths of any country.
The U.S. has 4.3% of the world’s population, but 19.8% of the world’s cases and 19.3% of the world’s deaths.
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