Florida sees more than 9,000 new cases
Florida’s rising number of COVID-19 infections kept climbing Thursday, with 9,085 more people testing positive amid a monthlong trend of increases.
Thursday’s report, based on health department data, showed the second highest number of new cases for this month, following 10,105 infections tallied Sunday. The third highest number of cases this month was recorded Tuesday.
The state on Thursday confirmed 81 new deaths associated with COVID-19. The official death toll from the virus in the state since the pandemic began is 18,030.
On Wednesday, a group of
Florida mayors, including several from South Florida, called on Gov. Ron DeSantis to be more aggressive in fighting the coronavirus pandemic in the state, including imposing a statewide mask mandate.
Since the Nov. 3 election, Gov. Ron DeSantis has remained largely silent on the subject.
On Thursday, he released a five-minute video message touting new COVID-19 vaccines that would soon be available to Floridians, calling them “the greatest rays of hope” for the state since the pandemic began.
Florida has confirmed 914,333 total cases of COVID19 throughout the pandemic. Not all of the individuals who tested positive over the entirety of the pandemic are currently infectious.
South Florida also is experiencing a serious outbreak, with 3,410 new cases in 24 hours.
South Florida
Broward County: 902 additional cases and three more deaths. Broward has a known total of 98,377 cases and 1,640 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. The death tally includes 29 non-residents.
Palm Beach County: 563 additional cases and three more deaths. The county now has 60,219 confirmed cases and 1,668 deaths. Miami-Dade County: 1,945 additional cases and seven new deaths. The county now has 209,166 confirmed cases and 3,760 deaths.
Testing and positivity rates
Public health experts say the virus is considered under control when the COVID-19 test positivity rate is under 5%. Florida exceeds 5% by both of its measures of assessing the rate for testing of residents.
In the first calculation, the state reported a daily positivity rate of 7.58%, down from 8.16% the day before. This method of calculating positivity counts new infections only, but also counts repeat negative tests, which skews the figure downward.
According to the state, Thursday’s new case numbers reflect the results of 131,718 COVID-19 tests of Florida residents received from labs in the past day, up from 104,996 results reported Wednesday.
In the second calculation, which includes retests of people who were previously diagnosed, the statewide daily positivity rate is 8.91% based on the latest results for 131,718 residents. That’s down from 9.71% the previous day.
Broward County: Daily positivity rate of 6.92% for people with new infections only, down from 7.88%, according to state data.
Palm Beach County: Daily positivity rate of 7.21% for people with new infections only, down from 8.88% the previous day.
Miami Dade County: Daily positivity rate of 8.09% for people with new infections only, down from 9.21% the previous day.
Child infections
COVID-19 infections among children under age 18 are rising by hundreds of cases each day in Florida. Thursday’s data show 80,400 cases statewide, an increase of 961 from the previous day.
Records show 674,318 kids have been swabbed since the beginning of the pandemic. And 11.9% of them have tested positive.
Overall, the statistics show 17,108 cases among children in Miami-Dade County, the most in the state, followed by 10,577 cases in Broward. There have been 4,893 confirmed infections among kids in Palm Beach County.
The statewide report also shows 908 children have been treated in hospitals for COVID-19 illness since March. Nine have died. The death total has been the same since Sept. 26.
As of 4 p.m. Thursday, 3,383 people were hospitalized in Florida with a primary diagnosis of C OVID19. That’s an increase of 31 patients in about 24 hours.
In South Florida, Broward County reported 328 patients, up by 18; Palm Beach County had 232, up by four; and Miami-Dade had the most in the state with 460, down by 10.
The online report from the state Agency for Health Care Administration updates frequently throughout the day. Hospitalizations hit a peak in late July of about 9,500 patients.
Since the pandemic began, 52,865 residents have been hospitalized for the disease.
Deaths
The state’s pandemic data report shows a total of 17,810 Floridians have died from COVID-19. In addition, 220 non-residents have died after contracting the virus. Most of the 81 fatalities reported Thursday happened over several weeks but were just confirmed in the past day.
Florida has the fourth-highest total of COVID-19 deaths among the states, behind New York, Texas and California, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Florida’s death rate since the pandemic began ranks 13th among states, at 82 deaths per 100,000 people, the CDC reports. That’s higher than the national rate of 75 deaths per 100,000.
Long-term-care facilities: At least 7,082 residents and staff have died at nursing homes and assisted-living centers throughout Florida.
Miami-Dade County has reported the highest number of deaths at long-term-care facilities, with 856. Palm Beach County is second with 739. Broward has reported 465 deaths.
National and global view
U.S.: Almost 11.6 million people in the country have been infected with the novel coronavirus and 251,756 have died as of 4 p.m. Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 dashboard.
World: About 56.6 million people have tested positive for COVID-19 and more than 1.35 million people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins says. The U.S. has had the most COVID19 cases and deaths of any country. The U.S. has 4.3% of the world’s population, but 20.36% of the world’s cases and 18.59% of the world’s deaths.