Florida reports 44 more COVID-19 related deaths, 4,544 cases.

The Florida Department of Health reported 4,544 new coronavirus cases and 44 more resident deaths on Saturday.

To date, 875,096 people have been infected statewide and 17,489 residents have died. With 215 non-resident deaths, the combined toll is 17,704.

The daily case report continued to hover in the 4,000-7,000 range, having only dipped below 4,000 once since Oct. 31.

Each report includes deaths from several previous days, as it can take two weeks or more for fatalities to be logged.

COVID-19 hospitalizations are down from mid-July highs of over 8,000.

They declined to around 2,000 by early October, but are climbing back up.

Across the state, 3,151 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of about 12:30 p.m. Saturday, including 157 in Orange County, 79 in Osceola County, 45 in Seminole County and 36 in Lake County. The state’s online tool updates several times throughout the day.

To date, 51,813 people have been hospitalized in Florida, according to the state’s report.

Statewide, the latest positivity rate reported Saturday for Friday test results by the Florida Department of Health was 7995%, but that’s for new cases only and excludes anyone who previously tested positive. For all cases including retests of those previously infected, the latest positivity rate is 11.41%.

Central Florida on Saturday added 857 cases for a total of 143,277: 384 new cases in Orange for 50,830; 79 in Polk for 25,020; 63 in Osceola for 15,742; 41 in Volusia for 14,158; 140 in Brevard for 13,452; 81in Seminole for11,400; 61 in Lake for 9,527; and eight in Sumter for 3,148.

Eight new deaths were reported in Central Florida on Saturday, bringing the region’s toll to 2,816. Polk County has the most coronavirus fatalities in the region with 648, followed by 603 in Orange, 409 in Brevard, 341 in Volusia, 255 in Seminole, 243 in Lake, 228 in Osceola, and 89 in Sumter.

South Florida, home to 29% of Florida’s population, accounts for 40% of cases with 351,788. That includes 1,841new cases reported Saturday among Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties.

South Florida’s reported deaths rose by seven on Saturday for a total of 6,914, about 40% of the state’s total.

The virus has infected over 53 million people and has killed nearly 1.3 million worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins University & Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center. Nationwide, more than 10.7 million people have been infected and nearly 244,000 are dead.