Florida reports 44 resident virus deaths, 1,823 cases

Second straight day with less than 2K cases

The state coronavirus death toll rose by 44 to 11,915 with the release of Tuesday’s update from the Florida Department of Health. With 152 non-resident fatalities, the combined toll is now 12,067.

It’s the fourth day in a row with less than 100 reported deaths. Of note, a death is reported sometimes up to a month after the actual day of death, and deaths typically come two to three weeks after infections.

Reported deaths have been under 1,000 for three weeks straight, tallying 730 reports for the week ending Sept. 6. The week ending Aug. 16 marked the highest number of deaths reported in a single week with 1,266 deaths posted by the state.

Deaths have been falling, though, since the singleday high of 193 as reported by DOH on Aug. 5. The state has stated there were more than 100 actual deaths per day from July 7-Aug. 14.

New positive cases of COVID -19 have also trended down of late with the second day in a row of under 2,000 new reports. The latest update showed a statewide increase of 1,823 bringing the total to date to 650,092.

The Florida Department of Health hasn’t reported a daily increase above 10,000 infections since July 25. State cases totals have been dropping since the high of 15,300 reported positive COVID-19 results on July 12, and the DOH has not reported more than 5,000 every day since Aug. 15 except for a bump a week ago that was blamed on a data dump from Quest Diagnostics with test results dating back to April.

The state saw a surge in cases in mid-June through July, with some pointing at Memorial Day weekend as a source of community spread. Similar concerns were raised for the public’s level of interaction during Labor Day weekend, fearing another spike coming.

Statewide, the latest positivity rate reported by the Florida Division of Emergency Management was 4.96%, 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 6.81%.

Central Florida surpassed the 100,000 casemark on Saturday. The region accounts for about 16% of the cases statewide and about 15% of the deaths.

On Tuesday, Central Florida added 309 cases for a total of 101,592: there were 95 new cases in Orange for 37,247; 69 in Polk for 17,932; 18 in Osceola for 11,560; 46 in Volusia for 9,862; 30 in Seminole for 8,412; 33 in Brevard for 7,689; 17 in Lake for 6,841; and one in Sumter for 2,049. Central Florida’s reported death count actually decreased by one in Lake, but increased by one in Seminole so the region’s toll stands at 1,787.

Polk County, due to nursing-home outbreaks, has the most coronavirus fatalities in the region with 469, followed by 387 in Orange, 235 in Brevard, 197 in Volusia, 182 in Seminole, 134 in Osceola, 128 in Lake, and 55 in Sumter.

Over 4.8 million people have been tested in Florida. Testing declined statewide in August, which saw an average of about 32,000 daily tests, compared with July, with about 54,400 daily.

COVID -19 hospitalizations have been steadily falling from mid-July highs over 8,000. Across the state, 3,170 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of 10 a.m. Tuesday. That includes 147 patients in Orange County, 55 in Osceola, 51 in Seminole and 67 in Lake County. The state’s online tool updates several times throughout the day.

To date, 40,195 people have been hospitalized in Florida, the st a t e ’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 43% of cases with 278,891 total. That includes 641 new cases reported Tuesday among MiamiDade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties.

South Florida’s reported deaths on Tuesday rose to 24 for a total of 5,070, about 43% of the state’s total.