Lake County offers free coronavirus rapid tests to residents.

Florida’s resident death toll from coronavirus rose to 17,810 with the addition of 79 more reported fatalities on Thursday, while the state added 9,085 more positive cases for a total to date of 914,333.

The number of new cases is the second highest this month, with only last Sunday’s total of more than 10,000 exceeding it. Recent case reports have been in the 4,000-8,000 range, having only dipped below 4,000 once since Oct. 31.

With 220 non-Florida resident deaths, the state’s combined total stands at 18,030. 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 steadily climbing back up.

Across the state, 3,383 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of about 3:30 p.m. Thursday, including 189 in Orange County, 79 in Osceola County, 53 in Seminole County and 49 in Lake County. The state’s online tool updates several times throughout the day.

To date, 52,865 people have been hospitalized in Florida, according to the state’s report. That’s 228 new reported hospitalizations since Wednesday’s total.

The positivity rate among those newly tested has climbed above 8% and approached 10% several times in recent weeks.

Statewide, the latest positivity rate reported Thursday for Wednesday test results by the Florida Department of Health was 7.58%, 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 8.91%.

Central Florida on Thursday added 1,383 cases for a total of 149,756: 522 new cases in Orange for 53,384; 201 in Polk for 25,897; 202 in Osceola for 16,693; 118 in Volusia for 14,681; 164 in Brevard for 14,112; 101 in Seminole for 11,887; 57 in Lake for 9,872; and 18 in Sumter for 3,230.

Twenty new deaths were reported in Central Florida on Thursday, although one less in Polk County than was reported Wednesday, bringing the region’s toll to 2,877. Polk County has the most coronavirus fatalities in the region with 656, followed by 619 in Orange, 418 in Brevard, 351 in Volusia, 261 in Seminole, 243 in Lake, 238 in Osceola, and 91 in Sumter.

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

South Florida, home to 29% of Florida’s population, accounts for 40% of cases with 367,762. That includes 3,410 new cases reported Thursday among Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties.

South Florida’s reported deaths rose by 13 on Thursday for a total of 6,993, about 40% of the state’s total.

The virus has infected over 56 million people and has killed more than 1.3 million worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins University & Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center. Nationwide, more than 11 million people have been infected and over 251,000 are dead.