State coronavirus deaths up 94; 3,449 new cases reported

The Florida resident death toll from coronavirus increased to 15,830 with the additional 94 fatalities reported Friday by the state Department of Health.

Positive cases of COVID-19 increased by 3,449 to a total of 748,347 to date. With a population of about 21.5 million, about one in 29 people in the state have now been infected. That number is closer to one in 41 nationally and one in 200 worldwide.

There is a lag time between all daily figures reported by the state, which could include cases that are weeks old. COVID-19 deaths, for example, are reported sometimes as much as a month or more after the actual day of death.

As far as deaths go, Florida has seen about one in 1,357 of its residents die from the virus, while nationally, which has more than 217,000 fatalities, that’s a little more than one in1,500 people. Worldwide fatalities approached 1.1 million, which amounts to about one in 7.100 of the planet’s 7.8 billion population.

Another 200 non-Florida residents have died from the virus, so the combined state toll is 16,030.

Deaths attributed to COVID-19 amount both in Florida and nationally to about .07% of the population while globally, it’s at .01%.

The virus primarily proves fatal to older populations as well as those with underlying health conditions.

Over 5.5 million people have been tested in Florida, with 30,193 more tests reported Friday compared with the previous day.

Testing has declined statewide in the past month to a daily average of about 23,000 since Sept. 1. That’s down from about 32,000 daily tests on average in August and 54,400 a day in July.

The Florida Department of Health did not immediately release the latest positivity rate on Friday. The most recent figures from are 5.2% for new positive cases, and 6.7% for all tests including those previously testing positive and retaking tests as the infection runs its course.

Central Florida on Friday added 685 cases for a total of 120,478: 266 new cases in Orange for 43,044; 116 in Polk for 21,572; 43 in Osceola for 13,356; 80 in Volusia for 11,819; 85 in

Brevard for 10,268; 44 in Seminole for 9,605; 36 in Lake for 8,083; and 15 in Sumter for 2,731.

Central Florida had 20 of Friday’s newly reported deaths, bringing the region’s toll to 2,453. Polk County, due to nursinghome outbreaks, has the most coronavirus fatalities in the region with 578, followed by 528 in Orange, 342 in Brevard, 300 in Volusia, 234 in Seminole, 214 in Lake, 178 in Osceola, and 79 in Sumter.

Central Florida accounts for 16% of the cases statewide and 15% of the deaths.

South Florida, home to 29% of Florida’s population, accounts for about 41% of cases with 306,456 total. That includes 1,039 new cases reported Friday among Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties.

COVID-19 hospitalizations had been steadily falling from mid-July highs of over 8,000, but have leveled off to about 2,000 in the last month. Across the state, 2,107 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of about 10:30 a.m. Friday. The state’s online tool updates several times throughout the day. That includes 139 in Orange County, 71 in Osceola, 40 in Lake and 25 in Seminole counties.

To date, 46,862 people have been hospitalized in Florida, the st a t e ’s COVID -19 dashboard shows. But those numbers could include cases that are weeks old.

The virus has infected over 39 million people and has killed nearly 1.1 million worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins University & Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center. Nationwide, nearly 8 million people have been infected and over 217,000 are dead.