Death toll in Central Florida nears 2,000

State reports 3,204 new cases Friday, 139 more fatalities

Florida added 3,204 coronavirus cases Friday to push the statewide total to 677,660 infected. With 139 new virus fatalities reported statewide Friday, 13,225 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 23,400 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 5 million people have been tested in Florida, with 27,287 more tests reported Friday compared with the previous day.

Statewide, the latest positivity rate reported by the Florida Department of Health was 4.18%, 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 5.33%.

Central Florida on Friday added 607 cases for a total of 106,292: 201 new cases in Orange for 38,623; 132 in Polk for 18,915; 56 in Osceola for 11,975; 49 in Volusia for 10,413; 48 in Seminole for 8,742; 71 in Brevard for 8,264; 47 in Lake for 7,220; and 3 in Sumter for 2,140.

Central Florida had 22 of Friday’s newly reported deaths, bringing the region’s toll to 1,996. Polk County, due to nursinghome outbreaks, has the most coronavirus fatalities in the region with 505, followed by 431 in Orange, 274 in Brevard, 216 in Volusia, 199 in Seminole, 169 in Lake, 137 in Osceola, and 65 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, 2,383 people were hospitalized with

COVID-19 as of about 11 a.m. Friday. The state’s online tool updates several times throughout the day.

Orange County reported 116 patients hospitalized, Osceola with 43, Seminole with 34, and Lake with 35 as of about about11a.m. Friday.

To date, 42,234 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 42% of cases with 286,152 total.

That includes 826 new cases reported Friday among Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties.

South Florida’s reported deaths on Friday rose by 74 for a total of 5,616, about 42% of the state’s total.

The virus has infected over 30 million people and has killed over 946,000 worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins University & Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center. Nationwide, over 6.6 million people have been infected and over 197,000 are dead.