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Coronavirus case increase of 2,678 lowest since June 15; deaths rise by 87

Palm Beach County reports no fatalities, drops to third behind Broward
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Posted at 3:05 PM, Aug 17, 2020
and last updated 2020-08-18 00:28:09-04

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Florida's coronavirus cases decreased dramatically to 2,678, the lowest since 1,758 on June 15, as a U.S.-high 87 more deaths were reported, with none in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast area, and the first-time daily positivity rate was under the target 10 percent for the fifth day in a row, the Florida Department of Health announced Monday.

Total daily tests were under 100,000 for the 10th day in a row, 39,158, which is the lowest in two weeks. The positivity rate of tests received from labs Sunday increased to `12.10 percent from 10.91 when there were 58,225 tests. The first-time cases positivity was 8.25 after 7.76, 7.69, 8.06 and 9.50. The two-week high of 11.90 percent was Tuesday.

In Palm Beach County, the first-time positivity rate went above 7.0 percent – 7.2 – for the first time in three days and among 1,073 tests. The most recent figures were 6.8, 6.2, 6.7. In addition, increased cases were 144 after 227 the day before.

Palm Beach County's death toll remained at 992 and dropped to third behind 1,013 in Broward, which gained 33.

Remaining the same were St. Lucie at 197, Martin at 104 and Indian River at 67. Okeechobee, which reported its first 2 fatalities on July 25, stayed at 12.

Miami-Dade rose by 24.

In South Florida, there were 57 of the 87 deaths – 65.5 percent – for a total of 4,466 at 46.8 percent though the population only comprises 30 percent.

Florida is in fifth place in the United States with 9,539 deaths and nonresident deaths remained at 135 for a total of 9,674.

Texas is in fourth place with the addition of 51 deaths after a U.S.-high 143 deaths Sunday, 313 deaths Friday and Tuesday's state-record 324, for a total of 10,034. California reported 18 new deaths and is in third place overall with 11,242. Every other states' new deaths were under 30.

Florida's new hospitalizations rose by 266 compared with 267 the day before.

Cases

Since the first two cases were announced on March 1, Florida's total has surged to 2.7 percent of the state's 21.48 million population with 576,094, second in the nation.

In one week, cases have risen by 39,133 at 7.3 percent.

One week ago Wednesday, Florida became the second state to pass 500,000 cases.

California has the most cases in the U.S. at 628,031 with the addition of a U.S.-high 6,469 Monday. Texas had the second-most cases, 2,678, and is third overall with 542,950. New York, which was the leader during much of the pandemic, is in fourth at 525,916 with 508 more.

Florida's cases have been below 10,000 for three weeks when they climbed by 12,200 on Saturday, July 26.

Sunday's case increase was 2,678, which was the lowest since 3,286 on June 23. Saturday's case rise was 6,352 after Friday's 6,148.

Last Monday's increase was 4,155, which previously was the lowest since June.

Cases in Florida had stayed below 2,000 until June 13 with 2,581 and they often were under 1,000 with the last one of three digits 966 on June 8.

The cases record was 15,300 was July 5 – the highest daily figure ever in the United States. The second highest is 13,965 on July 16.

In Palm Beach County, new cases have been much lower since the record 1,171 July 5. The total now is 39,274, including residents and nonresidents.

Miami-Dade's cases increased 723 – the lowest in several weeks – and compared with 900 the day before. Broward's increase was 379 vs. 436. In the Treasure Coast area, the rise over one day was 29 in St. Lucie, 14 in Martin, 9 in Indian River and 6 in Okeechobee.

Deaths

Sunday's reported deaths were 107 after Saturday's 204, the eighth time the toll has been over 200. The state record was 276 on Tuesday. The previous record was 257 on July 31. Others in the 200s were 228, 212, 225, 245, 252, 216.

The first two deaths were announced on March 6. On June 16, Florida was in 11th place in the nation.

State and county increases represent fatalities received by the state Sunday and not the number of deaths that occurred then. The day someone dies and when it is received by the state can lag for several days. So far, the most deaths occurred on July 20 with 179.

In the state report Monday it reported 89 new deaths but 2 were removed after further determining a cause of death for a net gain of 87.

Pinellas rose by 10 to 558 deaths in fourth place and Hillsborough went up by 4 to 487 in fifth place. No. 6 Lee remained 375.

Deaths rose by 1,262 in the state over seven days (a daily average of 181) for 15.2 percent and in Palm Beach County it was 56 for 6.0 percent. Two months ago the one-week U.S. figure was in the mid 200s. The U.S. figure is 4.5 percent with the world at 5.3 percent.

One month ago there were 3,021 deaths. And it passed 5,000 on July 20.

Miami-Dade climbed to 2,081, which is 207 more in one week. Broward increased to 1,013 with a rise of 192 in one week.

Palm Beach County's death count is higher than 21 states, including Iowa's 981 after gaining 6 Monday.

The state report on Monday identified one additional fatality, a 95-year-old man, which likely means one death was deleted from the system or the case included a change because there was no increase in the county.

The last time Palm Beach County didn't report a death was Aug. 2.

On June 30, the state reported no deaths in Palm Beach County, the Treasure Coast and Okeechobee. On May 31 there were not fatalities there as well as Miami-Dade and Broward where there were 4 fatalities statewide.

Testing

Florida's total now is 4,259,573, fourth in the nation, behind No. 1 New York, No. 2 California and No. 3 Texas. That Florida figure is 19.7 percent of Florida's population, though some people tested more than once.

The overall positive rate was 13.52 percent Monday after 13.53 Saturday. It was only 0.01 percentage point but the first drop in several weeks.

The daily rate at one time was around 2-3 percent but has risen to 12.10. The record is 20.71 percent on July 8 when there were 51,686 tests.

The record test total was 142,964 July 11.

In Palm Beach County, the first-time rate has been above 10.0 percent just twice over two weeks, 10.7 percent on Aug. 3 and 10.2 the next day.

Miami-Dade's figure spiked to 12.3 percent after two-week lows of 10.3 and 10.7. The highest was 26.4 on July 8. In Broward, the percentage was 9.2 after 8.3 the day before and after a two-week low of 7.1 percent.

Elsewhere, St. Lucie's rate dropped to 14.2 from 16.2 percent, which is the highest in two weeks, and two-week low of 7.6 on Thursday. Martin jumped to 13.0 among only 108 tests from 7.0 percent among 143 tests and a 14-day low of 2.3 the day before with 386 tests. Indian River's figure tied for the two-week low of 3.4 two days ago with it 4.3 on Saturday. Okeechobee's rate was 2.2 percent, compared with 3.5 the day before and a two-week high of 30.2 on Aug. 6 among 86 tests.

Palm Beach County has 39,274 cases out of 296,857 total tested for 13.23 percent overall, not including those awaiting tests and inconclusive. Anything 10.0 percent and above is considered out of "target range" by the health department.

Miami-Dade leads with 146,026 positive cases out of 746,923 tested for 19.55 percent, and Broward is second with 66,826 cases and 465,236 tested for 14.36 percentage.

In Martin County, it's 3,937 of 26,712 for 14.74 percent. In St. Lucie, it's 6,283 out of 45,713 for 13.74 percent, Indian River with 2,661 of 28,557 for 9.32 percent and Okeechobee 1,148 of 8,074 for 14.22 percent.

Mortality rate

The mortality rate compares positive cases against deaths.

It is 1.7 percent in the state for all deaths and cases, including nonresidents, compared with 3.1 percent in the United States and 3.5 percent worldwide, which neared 777,000 deaths and passed 22.0 million cases Monday.

Palm Beach County's rate was 2.5 percent, compared with Broward at 1.5 percent and Miami-Dade with 1.4 percent. With much fewer deaths, the mortality rate is 3.1 percent in St. Lucie, 2.7 percent in Martin, 2.5 percent in Indian River and 1.0 percent in Okeechobee.

Florida has 444 deaths per 1 million people compared with the U.S. average of 524 per million. New York, which represents 19.0 percent of the deaths in the nation, has 1,692 per million. Worldwide, the figure is 99.6 per million.

Age breakdown

The median age for all deaths in Florida is 79.

The youngest deaths are a 9-year-old girl from Putnam as well as the two 11-year-olds, a boy in Miami-Dade and a girl in Broward, who are the only three in the 5-14 age class.

There are 22 deaths in the 15-24 class with no additions. The youngest in Palm Beach County is a 22-year-old woman.

Sixty-four people from 25 to 34 also have died from the virus, which was no change.

A total of 3,093 people 85 and older have died in the state from the virus, an increase of 20 in one day.

Ninety-three percent of the fatalities are 55 and older and 61 percent are 75 and older, a decrease of 1 percentage point in each statistic. A smaller percentage of older people have tested positive – 28 percent age 55 and older and 7 percent 75 and older.

At the other end of the age spectrum, there are 9,643 cases of infants to 4 years old, an increase of 65, and 220 were hospitalized, which was an increase of 2. From ages 5-14, there are 23,033, an increase of 126 with 196 in the hospital at one time, which is an increase of 3.

From the infant to 54 age group, 412,078 of the 570,024 residents have tested in data through Sunday. In that group, 686 have died, an increase of 5, for a 0.17 death percentage. From infant to 64, there are 486,330 cases. A total of 1,698, an increase of 39, have died for a 0.35 percentage.

Cities

West Palm Beach is in first place among Palm Beach County cities with 9,744, an increase of 29. Lake Worth, which includes the city and county portion, rose 21 to 6,880 followed by Boca Raton at 5,364, up from 5,336, Boynton Beach at 3,506 from 3,491 and Delray Beach at 2,663 vs. 2,654. A total of 842 in the county not designated by a city.

Port St. Lucie leads the Treasure Coast with 3,671, an increase of 12, followed by Fort Pierce at 2,303 , up 22, and Stuart with 1,883, which was an increase of 13.

In Indian River County, Fellsmere, which has a population of 5,754, remained at 382 compared with only 3 on May 31.

Hospitalizations

A total of 34,194 people in the state have been hospitalized, a rise from 30,277 seven days ago. That means it is a running total and includes people who have been released or died.

The number is 3,036 is in Palm Beach County, an increase of 10 compared with 11 the day before; 356 in Martin, which was an increase of 2; 390 in St. Lucie with no change, Indian River increased by 2 to 221 and Okeechobee at 114.

Long-term care

Forty-two percent of the deaths, 4,022 are residents and staff of long-term care, including 407 in Palm Beach County, which is second most in the state behind 655 in Miami-Dade. The state increase was 36 and in Palm Beach County it went up by 1.

National

Since the first death was reported five months ago on Feb. 29, the toll has risen to 173,716, an increase of 589 on Sunday, according to Worldometers.info.

Johns Hopkins reports 170,458, a gain of 406.

Cases reached 5,612,027 with an increase of 40,612, according to Worldometers.info. They have exceeded 70,000 seven times, including a record 78,446 on July 24.

Last Monday in the U.S., there were 569 more deaths and 49,840 more cases.

The one week U.S. death increase was 7,475 at 4.5 percent.

New York has the most deaths in the nation with 32,910, including 9 more Monday, among the lowest since the outbreak, after a high of 799 in April.

Among other states in the top 10 for deaths: No. 2 New Jersey with 31, No. 6 Massachusetts 4, No. 7 Illinois 12, No. 8 Pennsylvania 3, No. 9 Michigan none, No. 10 Georgia 25.

Also, No. 12 Arizona reported no deaths and 468 cases after a high of 4,877 infections on July 1. No. 23 Washington, the original epicenter in the United States, had 4 .

Worldwide

The U.S. represented 14.4 percent of the 4,083 additional deaths Monday and 22.2 percent of the world total though its population is only 4.3 percent of the global total. The one week world death increase was 39,415 at 5.3 percent.

Last Monday's death increase was 4,520.

Cases increased by 191,521, behind a record 289,648 on July 24.

Brazil, which is second behind the United States for deaths, reported 775 Monday after a record 1,554 on July 29 at 108,654. Brazil added 23,038 cases for a total of 3,363,235 and only behind the U.S.

Mexico reported 266 more deaths late Monday compared with a high of 1,092 on June 4 for a total of 525,733 in third place.

India added 880 deaths to rise to 51,925 in fourth place. The Asian nation also reported 54,288 cases for a third-place total of 2,647,316 behind the U.S. and Brazil.

Four European nations are in the top 10. The United Kingdom reported an additional 3 deaths for 41,369 in fifth place with the record daily high 1,172. No. 6 Italy, which at one time was the world's epicenter and reached 919 in one day, reported 4 deaths. No. 7 France added 19 and No. 8 Spain 2.

No. 9 Peru gained 206 Sunday and No. 10 Iran had 165 Monday.

Russia is in fourth place in the world in cases with 927,745, including an additional 4,892. The nation gained 55 deaths for 11th place.

No. 17 Canada reported 6 deaths to rise to 9,032, as well as 785 cases.

Sweden, which has been doing "herd immunity," reported 8 deaths and has 5,783. Neighboring Norway reported no deaths or the second day in a row to remain 261, as well as 55 more cases.

No. 27 China, the original epicenter of the world, hasn’t reported a death since April 26 and added 22 cases Tuesday.

Japan reported 11 deaths to increase to 1,099 and 953 cases.