State reports 132 COVID-19 deaths

With the state at a “critical juncture” in its COVID-19 emergency, some leaders in South Florida warned that “very dramatic measures” are coming if the disease keeps spreading and claiming more lives over the next one to four weeks.

Florida’s Department of Health on Tuesday said 4,514 people have died from COVID-19 complications since the pandemic began, an increase of 132 since Monday’s report.

That’s the highest number of deaths reported on any day throughout the pandemic.

While hinting at new stayhome orders, mayors in MiamiDade told Gov. Ron DeSantis they will decide when it gets bad enough to impose additional restrictions. It’s not clear yet if officials would base that on a shortage of hospital beds, rising death tolls, record cases, or a combination.

“If we do have to take the unfortunate step of having a shutdown or doing something to that effect, we’re going to have to justify it to the community,” Miami

Mayor Francis Suarez said. “Hopefully we’ll have the data to be able to say, look, the reason why we are doing this is for x, y or z reason.”

Suarez added, “We have somewhere between one week and four weeks to get this thing under control, otherwise we’re going to have to take some very dramatic measures here.”

There were 32 deaths reported Tuesday in Miami-Dade, where almost 2,000 people have died. It was the highest daily total since a record 34 deaths were listed April 14.

State data show a two-week trend of increasing deaths. Florida’s previous high for one day was 120 fatalities reported Thursday. The totals fluctuate from day to day; 35 deaths were reported Monday.

But Tuesday’s report of 9,194 new cases of the highly infectious disease was the lowest number over the last five days.

The state has been down this bumpy path before with days of declining cases only to veer back into coronavirus record-setting

territory.

“People are apprehensive, people are hurting,” DeSantis said during a discussion with several mayors from cities in MiamiDade. “This virus has affected every Floridian’s life.”

Wearing a mask because of Miami’s rules, the governor said the state is at a “critical juncture” in its fight to control the spread of the virus.

DeSantis called on local leaders to be “on the same page” in the effort, which includes convincing residents, particularly younger adults, to follow rules on social distancing and wearing facial coverings.

The previous two days in Florida brought a U.S. record with 15,300 cases on Sunday, followed by 12,624 cases on Monday.

In another troubling sign, the statewide positivity rate, a key figure to indicate the prevalence of the disease, increased again. The rate Tuesday was 15%, up from Monday’s 11.5% but still off last Wednesday’s peak of 18.4%.

In May, Florida’s positivity rate hovered around 5% for COVID-19 testing.

South Florida

South Florida, which accounts for 29% of Florida’s population, reported 3,893 new cases in the past day, or 42.3% of the total.

Broward County: 1,330 new coronavirus cases reported Tuesday, bringing the total to 32,814. A total of 487 people have died, with no more deaths reported since Sunday.

Palm Beach County: 473 new cases were reported, bringing the total to 22,279. A total of 638 people have died, 13 more since Monday.

Miami-Dade County:

2,090 new cases, bringing the total to 69,803. A total of 1,190 people have died. That’s 32 more than Monday.

“Things have not gone according to plan,” Suarez said, noting some residents have been “aggressively non-compliant” with restrictions aimed at stopping infections from spreading.

Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber said state and national leaders “have to create a greater sense of urgency” about the danger of COVID-19.

He said a statewide mask mandate — something the governor has not supported — “will tell people you have to do this” to protect themselves and others.

Gelber also called for the state to use more people to trace contacts of residents who have infections. He said it wouldn’t be a “silver bullet,” but it would help a lot.

When a case comes back as positive, a contact tracer gets in touch with the person to do just what the name suggests: figure out who they’ve been in contact with in the past two weeks. Those people can then be contacted and isolated so they don’t expose other people.

Hospitalizations

The number of people being treated for COVID-19 at hospitals continued to increase. The total is 8,253 patients statewide, as of midday Tuesday. It’s an increase of 181 since Monday, according to the Florida

Agency for Healthcare Administration.

Miami-Dade County has the most people hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19, with 1,839, an increase of 33 since Monday.

Next is Broward with 1,222, and Palm Beach County with 652.

Testing and positivity rate

Since the pandemic began, 291,629 people have tested positive for the virus in Florida. So far, almost 2.7 million people have been tested.

The positivity rate for the 24-hour period is 15%.

The daily positive test rate in Tuesday’s report was 16.1% for Broward County, 22.1% for Miami-Dade and 16% for Palm Beach.

Public health experts say a positivity rate of 10% or less is optimal.

The World Health Organization has recommended a positivity rate of 5% before countries start to reopen

Deaths

Statewide: The official COVID-19 death total for Florida stood at 4,514 on Tuesday. That figure includes 105 non-residents.

Senior care: At least 2,158 of the state’s deaths have occurred in nursing homes and long-term care facilities, a figure that represents 47.8% of the state’s total for coronavirus deaths. Broward accounted for 169 deaths or 7.8% of the longterm care facility deaths. Miami-Dade accounted for 560 deaths, or 25.9%, and Palm Beach County had 261 deaths, or 12.1%.

Global view

U.S.: The coronavirus death toll in the United States reached 135,802 as of 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to the Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University.

The United States reported almost 3.4 million cases, the highest total in the world.

Death tolls remained highest in New York State, with 32,395, and New Jersey, with 15,560.

But most of those fatalities happened in the first months of the pandemic. New York reported 45 more deaths, and New Jersey reported 35 more.

Worldwide: The global total reached 13.1 million cases Tuesday, with at least 574,072 deaths, Johns Hopkins reported.

The U.S. has 4.3% of the world’s population and 25.7% of the world’s cases.