Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Daily cases continue rapid rise
2,926 new infections is fifth-highest total
Florida hit a sobering milestone on Monday, reaching 100,000 cases of the new coronavirus on the 20th day of a surge of new infections.
The Department of Public Health added 2,926 cases on Monday morning, bringing the state’s total to 100,217.
The June infections show Florida’s cases growing at an increasingly rapid pace.
Consider:
■ Just four weeks and one day ago, on May 24, the state hit the 50,000 threshold. Before that, it took nine weeks to go from zero to the first 50,000.
■ The latest number of new cases is the fifth highest daily total since the beginning of the pandemic. The state reported 3,494 new cases on Sunday, 4,049 on Saturday, 3,822 cases on Friday, and 3,207 on Thursday. It might be premature to see the lower numbers on Sunday and Monday, compared to Friday and Saturday, as a trend. Statistics expert Nate Silver, founder of FiveThirtyEight.com, has reported that states’ counting often slows on weekends.
■ During the first 72 days the state reported test results — from the beginning of the pandemic through June 2 — the number of new cases topped 1,000 just 16
times. In the 20 days starting June 3, there has been only one day with fewer than 1,000 new cases.
In South Florida, the hardesthit area in the state:
■ Broward County: 172 new cases were reported Monday, bringing the total to 11,327 to date. A total of 395 people have died, unchanged since Sunday.
■ Palm Beach County: 189 new cases were reported, bringing the total to 10,943. A total of 481 have died, unchanged since Saturday.
■ Miami-Dade County: Florida’s hot spot saw 449 new cases, bringing the total to 26,239. A total of 899 people have died, unchanged since Sunday. MiamiDade has 13% of the state’s population but 26.2% of the coronavirus cases and 27.5% of the deaths.
“Florida has all the makings of the next epicenter,” said an update last week from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Center. “The risk there is the worst it has ever been in our projections. Miami and Florida’s southeastern counties now join the Tampa/Fort Myers area and Orlando for a fairly widespread transmission event that we forecast will continue throughout the state.”
U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., appearing Monday on the CNBC “Squawk Box” program before the state released its updated numbers, said people should be concerned —– and act accordingly.
“We’re not out of the woods. We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve got to, every one of us, everybody’s got to take this seriously. Wear your masks. Social distance. Don’t go places you don’t have to go to. Be careful,” Scott said.
Scott, a former Florida governor, said the increase in cases can’t be attributed to the increase in testing that identifies more people who are positive for the coronavirus but not showing symptoms. “Some of it might be tied to testing, but it’s clearly not all tied to testing.”
On Saturday, Gov. Ron DeSantis said the higher number of tests conducted in Florida this month is uncovering additional people with the virus, but he also acknowledged the much higher case numbers indicate community spread of the virus.
“What we’re seeing is sort of the logical result of things opening back up, and a lack of a lot of public health education and outreach on the importance of wearing masks, the importance of maintaining physical distancing,” said Melissa Ward-Peterson, an epidemiologist who works on the impact of societal factors in public health at Florida International University, where she’s a postdoctoral associate.
The increase in testing is part of the reason for the increase in reported cases, Ward-Peterson said. “If you cast a bigger net when you’re fishing, you’re going to catch more fish.”
But, she said, it’s worrying to see the positivity rate increasing, along with hospital utilization increases and more COVID-19 type illnesses and influenza like illnesses.
Testing results and trends
The state Department of Health on Monday reported a total of 1.62 million people have been tested for COVID-19 since the pandemic began. About 6.2% of the tests have been positive.
The rate is higher in South Florida, where 8.8% of people tested have been diagnosed with the disease, according to the data.
Overall, 100,217 people have been diagnosed with coronavirus in Florida. South Florida, home to 29% of Florida’s population, accounts for 48.4% of the cases, with a total of 48,509.
In the latest results, received by the state on Saturday and reported Monday, 16.1% of the 18,205 people swabbed statewide tested positive. By contrast, Sunday’s report showed 9.2% of 38,055 tests were positive.
Four weeks ago, on May 25, 2.4% of the 37,012 tests were positive.
Deaths
Statewide: At least 3,266 people have died from the new coronavirus in Florida, 12 more than on Sunday, the state reported.
Residents: The death total includes 3,173 residents and 93 from outside the state.
Hospitalizations
Statewide: A total of 13,407 people have been treated in Florida hospitals for COVID-19 since the start of pandemic-related
record-keeping, an increase of 82 since Sunday. The number of available hospital beds has been declining in recent weeks, records show.
South Florida: Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties have had 7,201 people hospitalized, 23 more than 24 hours earlier.
Global view
U.S.: The coronavirus death toll in the United States reached 119,977 on Monday morning, according to the Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University.
The U.S. has 2.3 million coronavirus cases, the most of any country in the world. At least 44,064 people have died in the national hot spots of New York and New Jersey.
Worldwide: Johns Hopkins also reported almost 9 million cases worldwide, with at least 468,881 people dead.
The United States has 4.3% of the world’s population and 25.4% of the world’s cases.