Death toll climbs by 72 as model predicts near 4,000

The latest coronavirus report from the Florida Department of Health added another 72 fatalities to raise the state death toll to 1,471.

As Florida and other states across the U.S. began their first steps toward reopening amid the coronavirus pandemic, one model used by the Trump administration severely shifted its projected deaths for both the state and the nation.

The Institute for Health

Metrics and Evaluation research center out of the University of Washington, which has been one of the primary tools in determining government reaction to coronavirus, released new data late Monday that now projects nearly 4,000 deaths in Florida and nearly 135,000 deaths in the U.S.

The numbers are more than double projections from just a week ago before several states, including Florida, lifted stay-athome orders.

The new models also now don’t show an end to daily deaths, but a continuing climb in death toll through Aug. 4, the extent of the projections at this time. For Florida, the projection is for 3,971 deaths with an uncertainty between 1,991 and 11,269. For the U.S., the projections is now 134,475 with an uncertainty between 95,092 and 242,890.

Central Florida now has 4,221 cases, including 1,446 in Orange, 547 in Polk, 521 in Volusia, 514 in Osceola, 403 in Seminole, 319 in Brevard, 236 in Sumter and 235 in Lake.

Five new fatalities were reported Tuesday bringing the Central Florida death toll to 143. The new deaths include a 48-year-old Lake County man, an 82-year-old Osceola County man, an 88-year-old Volusia

County man and two women in Polk County, one 85 and the other 94. Orange County still leads the region with 35 reported deaths to date.

South Florida remains the epicenter of the pandemic in the state, accounting for 59 percent of cases with 22,106 total among Miami-Dade (13,224), Broward (5,492) and Palm Beach (3,390) counties.