Florida tops 400,000 cases with 12,444 reported Friday
Day’s increase is state’s highest number in the past six days
Health care workers collect samples at a testing
Florida on Friday topped 400,000 COVID-19 cases, after adding 100,000 reported infections in just nine days.
Only California and New York have had more confirmed cases during the coronavirus pandemic, according to federal officials.
The Florida Department of Health reported 12,444 more cases on Friday, for a grand total of 402,313. The state has reported an average of 10,724 cases per day over the past seven days, which is the biggest surge anywhere in the nation.
This latest jump in reported infections comes a day after Gov. Ron DeSantis announced, “We’ve clearly stabilized with the cases.”
Friday’s increase is the highest number in the past six days, and is almost 2,200 more cases than Thursday’s 10,249 cases. The state is on a pace to vault over
New York’s 410,500 cases this weekend. California has 413,500 cases, according to the COVID Data Tracker from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Florida officials also said another 136 people have died from COVID-19 complications, for a total of 5,768 deaths in Florida. Statistics show that 82 percent of residents who have died were 65 or older.
There have been younger victims: 17 deaths of people between the ages of 9 and 24.
Reports do not say whether there were underlying health issues.
The state’s death rate has been steadily rising for the past four weeks; the state has reported over 100 deaths on eight of the past 11 days.
A record 173 fatalities were added on Thursday. Due to a reporting lag, many deaths happen weeks before showing up on the daily reports.
South Florida
South Florida, which accounts for 29% of Florida’s population, reported 5,665 new cases in the past day, or 45.5% of the daily total for the state, according to the state Department of Health. Broward County: 1,566 new coronavirus cases were reported Friday, bringing the total to 46,576. A total of 571 people have died, 10 more since Thursday.
Palm Beach County: 737 new cases were reported, bringing the total to 29,004. A total of 759 people have died, 17 more since Thursday.
Miami-Dade County: 3,362 new cases on Friday, bringing the total to 98,430. It’s the second-highest number of cases on any day during the public health emergency, records show. A total of 1,386 people have died. That’s 16 more than Thursday.
“We’re still working hard to continue to tamp down cases and urge you to protect those loved ones living in your same household who are at high risk of suffering from COVID-19,” Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez tweeted.
Testing and the positivity rate
Florida says it has tested 3.28 million people since the pandemic began, and 12.3% have been positive. That’s the third-highest number of COVID-19 tests in the country, behind California (6.8 million) and New York (5.4 million).
Florida on Friday reported a 13.3% positivity rate for tests statewide in the previous 24-hour period. The rate was 19.7% for Miami-Dade, 15.7% for Broward and 12.1% for Palm Beach County. Those figures have increased in each of the past two days.
The daily positivity rate is a key figure, since it’s one of the numbers that indicates the prevalence of the disease in the population. In May, Florida’s positivity rate was about 5%.
Hospitalizations
The number of people being treated for COVID-19 at hospitals dropped on Friday.
The total stood at 9,206 as of 11:31 a.m. Friday, according to the Florida Agency for Healthcare Administration. Exactly 24 hours earlier, the same report listed 9,434 patients.
Miami-Dade County has the most people hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of the new coronavirus: 1,987, a decrease of three since Thursday. Next is Broward with 1,270, down by 39 since Thursday. Palm Beach County has 573 patients, a decrease of 32.
A different report, from the state health department, shows 23,225 Florida residents have been hospitalized since the start of the pandemic. That’s an increase of 8,400 patients since July 1, when the total was 14,825 hospitalizations.
Deaths
Statewide: The official COVID-19 death total for Florida reached 5,768 on Friday. That figure includes 115 people who were not residents. The three South Florida counties account for 2,716 deaths, which is 47.1% of the state total. Nationwide: Florida’s death rate is in the middle compared with other states. Florida’s death rate per 100,000 people was 25.1 as of Thursday, CDC data show. The death rate is much higher in New York City with 279.4 deaths for 100,000. California has had 19.9 deaths per 100,000, and Texas has had 15.1 deaths. Senior care: At least 2,599 deaths have occurred in nursing homes and longterm care facilities, a figure that represents 46% of the state total for coronavirus deaths of residents. MiamiDade County has the highest number of long-term care facility deaths, with 588, or 22.6% of the total. Palm Beach County had 307 deaths, or 11.8%, and Broward accounted for 188 deaths, or 7.2%.
DeSantis has said the death toll would have been higher without months of lockdowns and other restrictions designed to prevent the spread in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities.
COVID-19 is the state’s deadliest infectious disease, killing three times more Floridians a day than flu/ pneumonia, AIDS and viral hepatitis combined, records show. The most vulnerable to death and hospitalization are people older than 65 or those who have underlying health concerns such as weakened immune systems, diabetes or obesity.
Global view
U.S.: The coronavirus death toll in the United States reached 144,424 as of 11:35 a.m. Friday, according to the Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University.
The United States has reported 4.06 million cases, the highest total in the world.
Worldwide: The global total reached almost 15.6 million cases Friday, with at least 634,594 deaths, Johns Hopkins reported.
The U.S. has 4.3% of the world’s population and 26.1% of the world’s cases.