Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
State adds 6,093 coronavirus infections
Florida added 6,093 new coronavirus cases Tuesday, one of the highest daily totals during a monthlong surge of cases.
The Department of Health also reported 58 additional deaths, for a new total of 3,604 fatalities.
In Miami-Dade County, Florida’s coronavirus hot spot, there have now been 1,006 deaths, an increase of 16 from the day before.
Throughout the pandemic there have been only three other days with as many more people testing positive for COVID-19 in the state, all in the past week. The record is 9,585 cases on Saturday, followed by 8,942 on Friday,
and 8,530 on Sunday.
The trend of record-high daily totals has upended the state’s reopening plans and prompted new restrictions such as Fourth of July weekend beach closures, extra enforcement of business capacity rules, and stopping bars from serving alcohol.
But Gov. Ron DeSantis vowed Tuesday there won’t be a return to extensive business shutdowns. He said the recent outbreak of cases — 48,931 over just the past week — was caused by younger people infecting one another in various social situations.
“We’re not going back, closing things,” he said during a news conference in Juno Beach. “People going to [a] business is not what’s driving it.”
South Florida
Over the past 24 hours, MiamiDade, Broward and Palm Beach counted 2,616 new cases, or 42.9% of the statewide total for the day. The three big South Florida counties hold 29% of Florida’s population.
Breaking the numbers down further:
Broward County: 579 new cases were reported Tuesday, bringing the total to 15,624 to date. A total of 405 people have died, one more since Monday’s report.
Palm Beach County: 439 new cases were reported, bringing the total to 14,150. A total of 523 people have died, seven more since Monday.
Miami-Dade County: 1,598 new cases, bringing the total to 36,820. A total of 1,006 people have died, which is 16 more than Monday. Miami-Dade has 13% of the state’s population but 24.2% of the coronavirus cases and 27.9% of the deaths.
Testing trends
Florida officials reported a total of almost 1.95 million people have been tested for COVID-19 since the pandemic began. About 7.8% of the tests have been positive, so at least 152,434 people have been diagnosed with the disease.
The rate is higher in South Florida, where 9.8% of people tested have been diagnosed with the disease in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, according to the data. The region accounts for 43.7% of all cases in the state, with a total of 66,594 so far.
Public health experts say they’re alarmed by a rising percentage of positive tests for each day that shows how the virus is spreading throughout many communities.
In the latest results, received by the state on Monday and reported Tuesday, 18.8% of the 32,359 people swabbed statewide tested positive.
That’s much higher than June 3, when the outbreak began getting worse. On that day, 4.2% of the 31,154 people tested were positive for infections.
“You’ve seen a higher percent
age test positive now,” DeSantis said Tuesday. “We obviously want to get that back down to the single digits. A lot of our tests are with people who are younger who have either no symptoms or are very mild.”
The latest state data show the median age of residents diagnosed with COVID-19 on Monday was 37. In Miami-Dade, it was 40, while in Broward it was 36, and in Palm Beach County it was 40. The median means that half of the cases were people aged younger and half were older.
“The No. 1 cohort by far who have tested positive is that 25-to-34 age group,” the governor said. “The medical consequences of that are radically different than when you’re talking about a resident of a longterm care facility or when you’re talking about somebody in that 65 and up category.”
Deaths
Statewide: The official COVID-19 death total for Florida on Tuesday includes 3,505 residents and 99 people who are from outside the state.
Senior care: At least 1,846 of the state’s coronavirusrelated deaths (51.2%) have occurred in nursing homes and long-term care facilities; that’s an increase of 139 over the past week. And,
13,404 cases have occurred among residents and staff.
Hospitalizations
Statewide: A total of 14,879 people have been treated in Florida hospitals for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, an increase of 228 people since Monday. The number of available hospital beds has been declining in recent weeks, records show.
South Florida: Broward, Palm Beach and MiamiDade counties have had 7,867 residents hospitalized, 114 more than 24 hours earlier.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez cited rising hospitalizations as a reason for closing beaches from Friday through Monday. Beaches also will be closed in Broward and Palm Beach counties during the holiday weekend.
“After all the success we have had tamping down the COVID-19 curve, we cannot turn back and overload our hospitals, putting our doctors and nurses at greater risk with more emergency room cases,” Gimenez said.
Global view
U.S.: The coronavirus death toll in the United States reached 126,360 on Tuesday afternoon, according to the Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University.
The United States reported 2.6 million cases, the highest total in the world. Death tolls remained highest in New York State, with 31,403, and New Jersey, with 14,992.
Worldwide: The global total reached almost 10.4 million cases Tuesday, with at least 507,014 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins.
The United States has 4.3% of the world’s population and 25.2% of the world’s cases.
In an interview reported by CNBC.com on Monday, an official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the country is unable to stop a fastspreading outbreak with over 30,000 new infections per day. “This is really the beginning,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director. “I think there was a lot of wishful thinking around the country that, hey it’s summer. Everything’s going to be fine. … We are not even beginning to be over this.”