Florida reports 200 new virus deaths, 2,056 cases
Florida added 2,056 coronavirus cases Wednesday to push the statewide total to 652,148 infected. With 200 new virus fatalities reported statewide Wednesday, 12,115 Florida residents are now dead.
It’s the highest number of daily reported deaths since 219 on Aug. 18, but each report includes deaths from several previous days, as it can take two weeks or more for fatalities to be logged.
The Florida Department of Health hasn’t reported a daily increase above 10,000 infections since July 25.
Testing has declined statewide, to a daily average of about 24,000 so far in September. That’s down from about 32,000 daily tests on average in August and 54,400 a day in July.
Over 4.8 million people have been tested in Florida, with 14,312 more tests reported Wednesday compared with the previous day.
Daily reported case increases have been dropping since a high of15,300 on July 12, and the health department has not reported an increase over 5,000 Aug. 15 except for a bump last week blamed on a data dump from Quest Diagnostics.
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.
Florida Department of Health did not immediately release the latest positivity rate on Wednesday. The most recent figures are below.
Central Florida on Wednesday added 381 cases for a total of 101,973: 119 new cases in Orange for 37,366; 93 in Polk for 18,025; 34 in Osceola for 11,594; 16 in Volusia for 9,878; 25 in Seminole for 8,437; 53 in Brevard for 7,742; 30 in Lake for 6,871; and 11 in Sumter for 2,060.
Central Florida had 28 of Wednesday’s newly reported deaths, bringing the region’s toll to 1,815. Polk County, due to nursinghome outbreaks, has the most coronavirus fatalities in the region with 480, followed by 394 in Orange, 237 in Brevard, 199 in Volusia, 184 in Seminole, 134 in Osceola, 131 in Lake, and 56 in Sumter.
Central Florida accounts for nearly 16% of the cases statewide and nearly 15% of the deaths.
COVID -19 hospitalizations have been steadily falling from mid-July highs of over 8,000. Across the state, 3,069 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of about 11 a.m. Wednesday. The state’s online tool updates several times throughout the day.
Orange County reported 131patients hospitalized, Osceola with 58, Seminole with 44, and Lake with 66 as of about 11 a.m. Wednesday.
To date, 40,517 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 43% of cases with 279,551 total. That includes 660 new cases reported Wednesday among Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties.
South Florida’s reported deaths on Wednesday rose by 92 for a total of 5,162, about 43% of the state’s total.
The virus has infected over 27 million people and has killed over 898,000 worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins University & Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center. Nationwide, over 6.3 million people have been infected and over 189,000 are dead.