Florida surpasses 7,500 COVID-19 deaths after 247 more people die
New cases also increased Tuesday, a day after the state reported the fewest infections since June 23
Florida on Tuesday got another stark reminder of how the coronavirus pandemic has been so deadly — another 247 fatalities were reported.
The state confirmed that 7,526 people have died from COVID-19 complications to date.
The latest daily total is not reflective of deaths in the past 24 hours, but rather recent weeks. And it also may be because Tropical Storm Isaias interrupted reporting on some of the victims.
The state Department of Health reported 62 deaths Sunday
and 73 deaths Monday, following five straight days of deaths in triple digits.
Tuesday’s report represents the third highest total of fatalities reported on the official daily pandemic report. Last week had the most deaths logged on Friday, 257.
New COVID-19 cases also increased Tuesday, with 5,446 new diagnoses, a day after the state reported the fewest infections since June 23. That’s an increase of 694 from Monday’s tally.
Still, the last three days have produced the lowest case totals since June 29-July 1. It remains to be seen if this is a real downward trend or if it is due to the closure of many state COVID-19 testing sites due to the storm. The test results reported on a single day typically reflect tests taken over several days.
The number of test results reported Tuesday was the lowest in almost four weeks, suggesting that a decline in results accounted for a significant share of the drop in cases. A total of 56,533 results were reported, compared to 88,245 a week earlier, and 102,176 on July 21.
South Florida
South Florida, which accounts for 29% of Florida’s population, reported 1,916 new cases in the past day, or 35.2% of the daily total for the state.
Broward County: 422 new coronavirus cases were reported Tuesday, bringing the total to 58,953. A total of 790 people have died, 17 more than reported Monday.
Palm Beach County: 379 new cases, bringing the total to 34,929. A total of 876 people have died, 16 more than reported on Monday.
Miami-Dade County: 1,115 new cases, bringing the total to 124,759. A total of 1,740 people have died. That’s 30 more than reported Monday.
Testing and positivity rate
A total of 3.79 million people have been swabbed in Florida since the pandemic began, producing a positivity rate of 13.1%. The state reports that 3.29 million people tested negative and 497,330 tested positive. At the end of May, Florida’s positivity rate was about 5.6%.
Florida on Tuesday reported a 10.9% positivity rate for tests statewide in the previous 24-hour period. That’s an increase from Monday’s 9.1%, but still significantly better than the first week of July when the state had a 15% positivity rate on most days.
The positivity rate is an important figure, since it indicates the prevalence of the disease in the state’s population. Officials say they’d like to see the daily rate under 10%.
“I think the trend is positive,” Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters on Tuesday in Jacksonville. “I think by the time we get, you know, a couple weeks into the future, I think we’re going to see the prevalence decline and that will be a very, very good thing.”
In South Florida the positivity rates in the previous day were 10.6% for Broward, up from Monday’s 8.3%; 13.7% for MiamiDade, up from 12.5%; and 9.8% for Palm Beach County, which is unchanged.
Hospitalizations
The number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 decreased statewide Tuesday. There were 7,836 patients at 11:31 a.m., according to the Florida Agency for
Healthcare Administration. About 24 hours earlier, the same report listed 7,970 patients.
The number of people in hospitals for COVID-19 has been declining. The total hospitalized for the disease two weeks ago was 9,479, which is 1,643 more than were hospitalized Tuesday.
Miami-Dade County has the most people hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of the new coronavirus: 1,716 patients, an increase of 61 since Monday.
Next is Broward with 1,103, a decrease of 56. Palm Beach County has 488, a decrease of 33.
DeSantis says the state has already passed its peak of COVID-19 patients in hospitals, and he highlighted a downward trend in people coming to the ER with coughs and other infection symptoms.
Since the start of the pandemic, a total of 27,952 have been hospitalized, according to the state health department. That’s an increase
of 13,127 patients since July 1, when the total stood at 14,825.
Experts say people older than 65 are most vulnerable to hospitalization and death, along with people who have underlying health issues, including weakened immune systems, diabetes or obesity.
Deaths
Statewide: The official COVID-19 death total for Florida reached 7,526 on Tuesday. That figure includes 124 people who were not residents. The three South Florida counties account for 3,406 deaths, or 45.3% of the state total.
Seniors: At least 3,155 deaths have occurred among residents and staff of nursing homes and longterm care facilities, a figure that represents 42.6% of the state total for coronavirus deaths of residents.
Miami-Dade County has the highest number of longterm care facility deaths, with 616, or 19.5% of the total. Palm Beach County had 351 deaths, or 11.1%, and Broward accounted for 219 deaths, or 6.9%.
Nationwide: Florida has reported an average of about 184 deaths per day, or 1,283 total over the past seven days. Florida’s death rate ranks 19th in the United States, with compared with other states and the District of Columbia, with 33 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control’s COVID Data Tracker.
New York City has the highest death rate with 280 deaths per 100,000, followed by New Jersey, with 178. California and Texas have had 24 deaths per 100,000. California and Texas are the most populous states, followed by Florida and New York.
Global view
U.S.: The coronavirus death toll in the United States reached 155,814 as of 11:35 a.m. Tuesday, according to the Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University.
The United States has reported 4.7 million cases, the highest total in the world.
Worldwide: The global total surpassed 18.3 million cases Tuesday, with at least 695,318 deaths, Johns Hopkins reported.
The U.S. has 4.3% of the world’s population, but nearly 25.8% of the world’s cases and 22.4% of the world’s deaths.