State reports 5 new COVID-19 deaths

Less than 1K new cases for first time since June 8

Florida reported five new resident deaths from coronavirus in its Monday report.

The state also reported 738 new positive cases of COVID-19, the first time it has had less than 1,000 new cases since June 8, and the lowest total since the 617 reported on June 2. The pandemic hit a high point in the state with 15,300 cases reported on July12. To date, the state has tallied 701,302 infections.

Monday case and death totals have trended much lower as weekend data doesn’t come in and Tuesday numbers tend to be much higher from the the Florida Department of Health.

The five new deaths brings the state resident death toll to 14,037. Another 170 non-Florida residents have died in the state to bring the combined toll to 14,207.

Over 5.2 million people have been tested in Florida, with 8,225 more tests reported Monday compared with the previous day.

Over 158,000 people were tested in the past week. Florida saw a peak in testing with over 429,000 posted for the week ending July 19.

Testing continues to decline statewide to a daily average of about 23,600 so far in September. That’s down from about 32,000 daily tests on average in August and 54,400 a day in July.

Statewide, the latest positivity rate reported by the DOH was 4.23%, 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 5.37%.

Central Florida on Monday added125 cases for a total of 110,727: 17 new cases in Orange for 39,990; 39 in Polk for 19,888; 17 in Osceola for 12,455;19 in Volusia for10,834; 11 in Seminole for 9,009; seven in Brevard for 8,848; eight in Lake for 7,475; and six in Sumter for 2,228.

Central Florida’s death toll remained at 2,115, but both

Orange and Polk county death reports declined by one from the previous day, while Lake and Seminole reported one new death each since Sunday. Polk County, due to nursing-home outbreaks, has the most coronavirus fatalities in the region with 528, followed by 444 in Orange, 293 in Brevard, 239 in Volusia, 209 in Seminole, 190 in Lake, 145 in Osceola, and 67 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, 2,092 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of about 10:30 a.m. Monday including107 in Orange, 65 in Osceola, 32 in Seminole and 31 in Lake. The state’s online tool updates several times throughout the day.