Florida reports 3,838 more cases

24th straight day increase was below 10,000

Florida added 3,838 coronavirus cases Tuesday to push the statewide total to 579,932 infected. With 219 new virus fatalities reported Tuesday, 9,758 Florida residents are now dead.

It’s the 24th day in a row the state Department of Health reported an increase below 10,000 cases.

Over 4.2 million people have been tested in Florida, with 26,095 more tests reported Tuesday — about 21,000 less than the daily average since the beginning of July — compared with the previous day. Over 3.2 million tests have been administered since May 31.

Statewide, Florida’s Department of Health reported a positivity rate of 7.91% for Monday, 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 11.1%.

Central Florida on Tuesday added 626 cases for a total of 89,711: 223 new cases in Orange for 33,709; 101 in Polk for 15,607; 51 in Osceola for 10,424; 61 in Volusia for 8,543; 38 in Seminole for 7,530; 76 in Brevard for 6,614; 48 in Lake for 5,698; and 28 in Sumter for 1,586. (See details on all Central Florida cases here).

Central Florida had 45 of Tuesday’s newly reported deaths, bringing the region’s toll to 1,497.

Polk, due to nursing-home outbreaks, has the most coronavirus fatalities in Central Florida with 387, followed by 352 in Orange, 181 in Brevard, 171 in Volusia, 151 in Seminole, 121 in Osceola, 89 in Lake, and 45 in Sumter.

Central Florida accounts for nearly 16% of the cases statewide and over 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.

However, after nearly two months of declining infection rates, a health official said Orange County is finally seeing the death rate also begin to drop.

Across the state, 5,491 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of about 10:50 a.m. Tuesday. The state’s online tool updates several times throughout the day.

Orange County reported 245 patients hospitalized, Osceola with 87,

Seminole with 82, and Lake with 87 as of about 10:50 a.m. Tuesday.

To date, 34,695 people have been hospitalized in Florida, the state’s COVID-19 dashboard shows. But those numbers could include cases that are weeks old.

South Florida, home to 29% of Florida’s population, accounts for about 44% of cases with 253,643 total. That includes 1,517 new cases reported Tuesday among Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties.

South Florida’s reported deaths on Tuesday rose by 71 for a total of 4,157, about 43% of the state’s total.

The virus has infected over 21.9 million people and has killed over 774,000 worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins University & Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center. Nationwide, over 5.4 million people have been infected and over 170,000 are dead.