Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Coronavirus cases surpass 30,000 across South Florida
There have been at least 30,381 people who have tested positive for new coronavirus infections in South Florida, the state reported Friday. That’s 574 more cases than the previous 24 hours.
The COVID-19 death toll is up to 1,328 in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, which is 25 more than Thursday.
At least 2,413 people throughout Florida have died since the outbreak began, the Health Department reported Friday. That is a rise of 49 reported deaths over the previous day across the state.
A 23-year-old Miami-Dade woman who died on May 8 was listed as Florida’s youngest victim, officials confirmed this week. No other details were released.
It’s the first time someone under age 25 died from a coronavirus-related illness in the state. At least 84 percent of the victims were 65 and older.
Records show that 49% of the fatalities in total have been in nursing homes and assisted-living facilities.
The Department of Health says 54,497 people in the state have tested positive for COVID-19. That’s 1,212 more cases in the past 24 hours. It’s the highest total of new cases on any day since May 20.
But Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday the jump is because of a continuing expansion of testing across the state.
“We’ve had more test results over the last 12 days than we did in any other 12-day period,” he said during a news conference at a Home Depot store in West Boca.
The governor said he’s encouraged by the results because it shows that only about 3% or fewer of those tested each day were diagnosed with infections.
“That’s a good sign,” DeSantis said. “It means 99 to 97% of people who are testing are coming back negative. And there was a time throughout the country when you had half of the test takers coming back positive, never in Florida but in some of the other places.”
Florida health officials say there have been 984,160 tests for COVID-19, with a total to date of about 5.5% positive statewide and 8.3% in South Florida.
A month ago, on April 29, it was about 9% positive statewide and 12% in South Florida.
The death toll includes 685 in Miami-Dade County, the epicenter for infections in Florida. That’s a oneday increase of 16 deaths.
With 2.7 million people, Miami-Dade has the highest population of all 67 counties in the state, according to the most recent census data.
There have been 335 deaths in Palm Beach County and 308 in Broward, according to the latest official data.
Since the pandemic began, 9,982 people have been treated in Florida hospitals, the state reported.
US, global view
The coronavirus death toll in the United States reached 101,622 on Friday morning, according to the Johns Hopkins University & Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center
The U.S. has had 1.7 million coronavirus cases. There have been at least 40,938 deaths in the national hot spots of New York and New Jersey.
Johns Hopkins University has also reported more than 5.8 million cases worldwide. At least 361,119 people have died.