Florida reports record 276 deaths

Florida’s resident death toll from coronavirus rose to 8,553 after the state Department of Health announced on Tuesday another 276 fatalities, the most yet for a single batch of reporting.

The 276 deaths occurred over several days as reports can take two or more weeks before the DOH reports them. The state also added another non-Florida resident death to its records bringing that total to 132. Combined, 8,685 fatalities have been attributed to coronavirus in the state.

Positive cases of COVID-19, though, continue to trend downward with 5,831 infections reported. That’s higher than Monday’s six-week low of 4,155, but it marks the 17th day in a row reported cases have fallen below 10,000. To date, 542,792 cases, both resident and non-Florida resident, have been tallied. The state’s record for a single-day increase was set July 12 with 15,300 reported cases.

Worth noting, the state’s daily infection numbers could be for tests given several days earlier as some labs have taken more than a week to submit results.

Also, Tuesdays tend to bring a surge in both death and case reporting as weekend numbers flowing into Monday’s update have regularly been less than weekday updates.

The fatalities being reported now is representative of the surge in cases from June and July, and the state continues to add to a toll that saw more than 4,000 reported fatalities in the last 30 days. That case surge, though, has dialed back in the last month and the reported deaths should in time climb back down as well.

Part of that trend is the current state of hospitalizations. Across the state, 6,767 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, a number that has been steadily falling from over 8,000 in mid-July, when the state began reporting current hospitalizations. The state’s online tool updates several times throughout the day. Orange County reported 345 patients hospitalized, Osceola with 125, Seminole with 103, and Lake with 86. The state DOH also reports hospitalizations to date, and Tuesday’s total of 31,354 is 569 more than the previous day, but those could be for cases that are weeks old.

Over 4 million people have been tested in Florida, with 35,514 more tests reported Tuesday compared with the previous day. Over 2.9 million tests have been administered since May 31.

Statewide, Florida’s Department of Health reported a positivity rate of 10.30% for the latest batch of reported cases, but that’s for new cases only and excludes anyone who previously tested positive. For all cases including retests of those previously infected, yesterday’s positivity rate was 14.70%.

Central Florida on Tuesday added 777 cases for a total of 84,567: 191 new cases in Orange for 32,042; 170 in Polk for 14,645; 89 in Osceola for 9,858; 80 in Volusia for 8,040; 67 in Seminole for 7,219; 91 in Brevard for 6,190; 52 in Lake for 5,229; and 37in Sumter for 1,344.

Central Florida had 54 of Tuesday’s newly reported deaths, bringing the region’s toll to 1,284, including 17 in Orange, 12 in Polk, 11 in Seminole, six in Brevard, five in Volusia, two in Osceola and one in Sumter. There were no new deaths reported in Lake County.

Polk leads Central Florida in coronavirus fatalities with 326, followed by 315 in Orange, 157 in Brevard, 140 in Volusia, 130 in Seminole, 106 in Osceola, 68 in Lake, and 42 in Sumter.

Central Florida accounts for 15.6% of the cases statewide and 15% of the deaths. The region’s share of the state’s deaths has ticked up compared with June and the start of July, when it had steadily remained at under 9% of Florida’s total.

South Florida, home to 29% of Florida’s population, accounts for about 43.5% of cases with 236,376 total. That includes 2,558 new cases reported Tuesday among Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties.

South Florida’s reported deaths on Tuesday rose by 74 for a total of 3,705, about 43% of the state’s total.

The virus has infected more than 20.1 million people and has killed over 737,000 worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins University & Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center. The U.S. has nearly 5.1 million cases, the highest in the world, and over 163,000 are dead.