State reports another 211 dead from COVID-19
Florida added 2,583 coronavirus cases Thursday to push the statewide total to 654,731 infected. With 211 new virus fatalities reported statewide Thursday, 12,326 Florida residents are now dead.
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 23,000 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 19,010 more tests reported Thursday compared with the previous day.
Daily reported case increases have been dropping since a high of 15,300 on July 12, and the health department has not reported an increase over 5,000 since Aug. 15 except for a bump Sept. 1 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.
Statewide, the latest positivity rate reported by the Florida Department of Health was 5.54%, 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 7.19%.
Central Florida on Thursday added 422 cases for a total of 102,395: 107 new cases in Orange for 37,473; 96 in Polk for 18,121; 40 in Osceola for 11,634; 53 in Volusia for 9,931; 22 in Seminole for 8,459; 45 in Brevard for 7,787; 50 in Lake for 6,921; and 9 in Sumter for 2,069.
Central Florida had 35 of Thursday’s newly reported deaths, bringing the region’s toll to 1,850. Polk County, due to nursing-home outbreaks, has the most coronavirus fatalities in the region with 483, followed by 401 in Orange, 245 in Brevard, 203 in Volusia, 189 in Seminole, 134 in Osceola, 136 in Lake, and 59 in Sumter.
Central Florida accounts for nearly 16% of the cases statewide and 15% of the deaths.
COVID -19 hospitalizations have been steadily falling from mid-July highs of over 8,000. Across the state, 2,918 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of about 11 a.m. Thursday. The state’s online tool updates several times throughout the day.
Orange County reported 133 patients hospitalized, Osceola with 54, Seminole with 45, and Lake with 51 as of about 11 a.m. Thursday.
To date, 40,807 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 280,295 total. That includes 744 new cases reported Thursday among Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties.
South Florida’s reported deaths on Thursday rose by 72 for a total of 5,234, about 43% of the state’s total.
The virus has infected over 27 million people and has killed over 904,000 worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins University & Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center. Nationwide, over 6.3 million people have been infected and over 190,000 are dead.