50,000 COVID-19 cases, 2,232 deaths in Florida

Since t he new coronavirus pandemic began, more than 50,000 people in Florida have been diagnosed with infections, the state reported Saturday.

And over half of the cases — 28,483 — have been confirmed in South Florida.

So far, 2,232 people across Florida have died from COVID-19, which is an increase of 42 over the past 24 hours and 268 since last week, according to the Department of Health.

The state data shows there have been 50,127 people who have tested positive.

That’s 676 cases more than Friday, and an increase of 5,316 cases from one week earlier.

Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties have had 1,236 deaths reported as of Saturday. That’s 25 more than Friday, and an increase of 124 fatalities from the previous week.

State Health Department reports show the three counties accounted for 28,483 cases as of Saturday, which is an increase of 2,476 cases since last week, and 309 over the previous 24 hours.

The three counties, home to 28.9% of Florida’s population, have had 55.4% of the state’s coronavirus deaths and 56.8% of the cases.

Gov. Ron DeSantis said this week that there are plenty of positive signs based on lower percentages of positive COVID-19 tests in the data.

He said that in the past week only 3% or fewer of those tested were diagnosed with infections, proving that the partial reopening of the state has not been risky or caused a spike in cases.

“Our positivity rate is very, very low ... even though we’ve expanded testing dramatically,” he said, noting a significant number of new cases are coming from long-term care facilities and prisons.

With 858,112 people swabbed so far — the state population is 21.5 million — the data shows a total to date of about 5.9% positive statewide and 8.6% in South Florida.

Four weeks ago, on April 25, it was about 9% statewide and 12.6% in South Florida.

Since the pandemic began, 9,310 people have been treated in Florida hospitals, the state reported, an increase of 193 over the last day.

Saturday’s Department of Health data shows the following breakdown:

Miami-Dade County, the Florida coronavirus hot spot, has had 16,694 cases, an increase of 172 from Friday. The number of Miami-Dade County deaths, 629, is 15 more than it was a day earlier. MiamiDade County, which has 13% of the state’s population, has 33.3% of the state’s cases and 28.2% of the deaths.

Broward has had 6,649 cases, 69 more than Friday. It has had 292 deaths, six more than Friday.

Palm Beach County has had 5,140 cases, 68 more than Friday. It has had 315 deaths, up four from Friday.

Testing trends

The percentage of people diagnosed with the disease has been steadily declining in South Florida. As of Saturday, Miami-Dade County had tested 157,352 people, and 10.6% of those tests were positive for COVID-19. But four weeks ago, 15% of those swabbed were confirmed positive in that county.

In Broward, there have been 92,033 people tested, according to the reports. Of those, 7.2% were positive, a drop from 11% on April 25.

And in Palm Beach County, there have been 62,330 tests, with 8.2% positive. That’s down from 12% about a month ago.

U.S., global view

The coronavirus death toll in the United States stood at 96,013 on Saturday morning, including at least than 39,838 victims in the national hot spots of New York and New Jersey. The country has 1.6 million cases.

The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University also reported more than 5.2 million cases worldwide. At least 338,762 people have died.

The United States has 4.3% of the world’s population, 28.3% of the world’s deaths and 30.5% of the world’s cases.

“Our positivity rate is very, very low ... even though we’ve expanded testing dramatically.”

Gov. Ron DeSantis