Statewide death toll passes 3,000

Florida reported an additional 2,610 coronavirus cases Wednesday as the statewide death toll surpassed 3,000.

There have now been 82,719 infections and 3,018 deaths, which includes an additional 25 fatalities reported compared with a day earlier.

Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office attributes the increases to expanded testing. On Wednesday, another 25,462 tests were logged for a total of 1,486,759 tests since the pandemic began. The daily positive rate was 10.3%, compared with an average positive rate of 5.6% this year.

Three of the newly reported deaths were in Central Florida: a 71-year-old

woman in Orange, a 74-year-old man in Osceola, and an 85 year-old woman in Volusia.

This brings the region’s death toll to 257, including 75 to date in Polk County, 50 in Volusia, 48 in Orange, 22 in Osceola, 17 in Sumter, 16 each in Lake and Brevard and 13 in Seminole.

Central Florida now has 9,452 cases, an increase of 404 from a day earlier. There are 147 new cases in Orange County for a total of 3,584; 68 in Polk for 1,634; 26 in Volusia for 995; 26 in Osceola for 892; 40 in Seminole for 876; 42 in Brevard for 650; 54 in Lake for 552; and one new case in Sumter for 269.

South Florida, home to 29% of Florida’s population, remains the hardest-hit region, accounting for 51% of cases with 42,557 total. That includes 1,056 new cases reported Wednesday among Miami-Dade (23,273), Broward (9,812), and Palm Beach (9,472) counties. South Florida also has the most deaths at 1,654, which is nearly 55% of the state’s fatalities, and includes 11 new deaths reported Wednesday.

To date, the state has recorded 12,389 hospitalizations on its COVID-19 dashboard, including 183 new hospitalizations reported Wednesday.

Nationwide, there are over 2.1 million cases with over 117,000 deaths. Worldwide, there are over 8.2 million cases, which is more than 1 in 1,000 people on the entire planet, and over 444,000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University & Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center.