State reports over 31,500 new cases after skipping New Year’s Day update

Florida’s resident death toll from coronavirus rose to 21,890 with the addition of 217 more reported fatalities on Saturday while also adding 31,518 more positive COVID-19 cases to bring the total to 1,354,833.

It’s important to note Saturday’s case report is very high due to a combination of two days’ worth of data because the health department did not issue a New Year’s Day update on new cases, deaths and other closely monitored pandemic figures.

However, it’s unclear how the cases and deaths are distributed between the two days.

The state has opted to halt updates on two other holidays thus far — Thanksgiving and Christmas Day — also resulting in reports with combined data.

On New Year’s Eve, Florida saw the highest increase of new daily cases since the outbreak took hold in the state with a record 17,192 new cases. It was also the highest increase since the height of the pandemic over the summer.

December holds the record in obtaining the most dates with high coronavirus numbers, a record previously held in July with a high of 15,300 cases posted on July 12, followed by 13,965 on July 16.

Daily cases have hovered between 7,000-13,000 through December, with four different days passing the 13,000 mark on Dec. 18 at 13,000, followed by Dec. 24 at 13,147, Dec. 17 at 13,148 and Dec. 30 with 13,871.

With a population of about 21.5 million, about one in 16 people in the state have now been infected. That number is closer to one in 16 nationally and one in 93 worldwide.

With 320 non-Florida resident deaths, including three new deaths reported Saturday, the state’s combined total stands at 22,210.

Nearly 3,300 newly reported deaths linked to coronavirus have been reported since Dec. 1.

Each report includes deaths from several previous days, as it can take weeks and sometimes several months for reports to appear.

Florida has seen about one in 981 of its residents die from the virus. Total deaths in Florida attributed to COVID-19 amount to .10% of the state population, and one in 62 who were infected have died, a 1.62% death rate.

COVID-19 hospitalizations are climbing back up toward mid-July highs of over 8,000. They had fallen to around 2,000 by early October, but passed 5,000 again last week.

Across the state, 6,701 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of about 1:45 p.m. Saturday, including 370 in Orange County, 153 in Osceola, 168 in Lake and 114 in Seminole. The state’s online tool updates several times throughout the day.

To date, 64,029 people have been hospitalized in Florida, according to the state’s report, which includes 288 newly reported hospitalizations since Thursday’s update.

Over 125,057 people were currently hospitalized with COVID-19 across the United States as of Friday, according to COVID-19 Tracking Project, which updates its cumulative data once a day.

Statewide through Saturday, 243,107 people have received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine.

To date, over 8.8 million people have been tested in Florida, 100,109 more than Thursday’s total.

So far this month, about 50,000 people are tested every day on average. In November, that number was about 38,600 people per day.

Statewide, the latest positivity rate reported Saturday for Friday’s test results by the Florida Department of Health was 10.13%, but that’s for new cases only and excludes anyone who previously tested positive. For all cases including retests of those previously infected, the latest positivity rate is 11.97%.

On Tuesday — when the state posted extraordinarily high positivity rates of 22.75% for new cases, and 26.29% for all cases — the DOH warned that “data may continue to be impacted” through January 4 due to testing site and lab closures over the holidays.

Central Florida added 6,091 cases on Saturday for a total of 227,348: That includes 2,054 more in Orange for 78,512; 1,011 more in Polk for 38,414; 769 in Osceola for 26,113; 531 in Volusia for 22,822; 507 in Brevard for 21,541; 458 in Seminole for 18,541; 547 in Lake for 16,106; and 214 in Sumter for 5,299.

There were 21 new deaths across all eight Central Florida counties bringing the region’s toll to 3,549. Polk County has the most coronavirus fatalities in the region with 791, followed by 750 in Orange, 525 in Brevard, 454 in Volusia, 316 in Seminole, 302 in Lake, 290 in Osceola and 121 in Sumter.

South Florida, home to 29% of Florida’s population, accounts for 39.1% of cases with 529,269. That includes 9,896 new cases reported Saturday among Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties.

South Florida’s reported deaths rose by 79 for a total of 8,009, about 36.6% of the state’s total.

The virus has infected over 84 million people and has killed over 1.8 million worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins University & Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center. Nationwide, more than 20 million people have been infected and more than 348,000 are dead.