WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Florida's coronavirus newly reported deaths subsided to 174 but passed 10,000, including nonresidents, as cases remained among the lowest in two months, 4,115, and the first-time daily positivity rate dropped to a two-week low of 7.08 percent, the Florida Department of Health announced Wednesday.
Total daily tests were under 100,000 for the 13th day in a row, 67,822. The positivity rate of tests received from labs Tuesday decreased to 10.21 from 11.13 when there were 56,905 tests. The first-time cases positivity has been under 9 percent for six days in a row: 8.06, then 7.66, 7.73, 8.21, 7.88. The state's target rate is less than 10 percent.
In Palm Beach County, the first-time positivity rate remained under 6.0 percent for the second day in a row – 5.8 among 3,540 tests after 5.6 percent. The rate has been under 9 percent the last 14 days, including six times under 7.0. In addition, increased cases were 192 after 186 the day before.
Palm Beach County's death toll increased by 16 to 1,022 after 14 the day before in third place behind Broward.
St. Lucie County increased by 2 to 208 while Martin remained at 104 for the fifth day in a row and Indian River at 67 for three consecutive days. Okeechobee, which reported its first 2 fatalities on July 25, stayed at 12 for 11 days in a row. On Monday, all four of those counties reported no deaths as well as Palm Beach County.
Broward increased by 24 and Miami-Dade rose by 40.
In South Florida, there were 82 of the 174 deaths – 47.1 percent – for a total of 4,628 at 46.6 percent though the population only comprises 30 percent.
Florida is in fifth place in the United States with 9,932 deaths and nonresident deaths remained at 135 for a total of 10,067. The death toll has doubled in one month.
Texas is in fourth place with the addition of 309 deaths after a state-record 324 on Aug. 11, for a total of 10,559. California reported 181 new deaths, which is 7 more than third-place Florida, and is in third place overall with 11,523. Arizona announced 105 more deaths and is in 11th place but reported only 637 cases.
Florida's new hospitalizations rose by 505 compared with 501 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 584,047, second in the nation.
In one week, cases have risen by 33,146 at 6.0 percent.
Two weeks ago Wednesday, Florida became the second state to pass 500,000 cases.
California has the most cases in the U.S. at 638,831 with the addition of 6,164, second in the U.S. on Wednesday. Texas had the most new cases, 6,474, and is third overall with 557,256. New York, which was the leader during much of the pandemic, is in fourth at 427,202 with 631 more.
Florida's cases have been below 10,000 since July 26 when they climbed by 12,199.
For the past four days the state's cases have been below 5,000: 3,779 Sunday, 2,678 Monday, 3,858 Tuesday. The last time cases were lower were 2,610 on June 17 and 1,758 on June 15.
Last Wednesday's increase was 7,109.
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 39,652, including residents and nonresidents.
Miami-Dade's cases increased 1,103 compared with 764 the day before. Broward's increase was 341 vs. 367. In the Treasure Coast area, the rise over one day was 54 in St. Lucie, 30 in Martin, 11 in Indian River and 14 in Okeechobee.
Deaths
Tuesday's death increase of 212 was the ninth time they surpassed 200. The state record was 276 on Tuesday, Aug. 11. The previous record was 257 on July 31. Others in the 200s were 228, 212, 225, 245, 252, 216.
The deaths from the weekend were lower 87 Monday and 107 Sunday.
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 Tuesday 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 184.
In the state report Wednesday it reported 176 new deaths but 2 were removed after further determining a cause of death for a net gain of 174.
Pinellas rose by 12 to 582 deaths in fourth place and Hillsborough went up by 18 to 508 in fifth place. Polk rose by 2 to 389 in sixth, past Lee, which remained at 384.
Deaths rose by 1,167 in the state over seven days (a daily average of 167) for 13.3 percent and in Palm Beach County it was 68 for 7.1 percent. Two months ago the one-week U.S. figure was in the mid 200s. The U.S. figure is 4.2 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 2,166, which is 227 more in one week. Broward increased to 1,049 with a rise of 180 in one week.
Palm Beach County's death count is higher than 21 states, including Iowa's 1,006 after gaining 17 Wednesday.
The state on Wednesday identified 17 deaths in Palm Beach County though the increase was 16 (the state makes changes sometimes in a designation). They were 10 men (42, 67, 70, 73, 78, 83, 84, 88, 95, 100) and 7 women (72, 72, 77, 82, 84 87, 95). St. Lucie's new deaths were a 59-year-old woman and a 63-year-old man.
Testing
Florida's total now is 4,312,904 fourth in the nation, behind No. 1 New York, No. 2 California and No. 3 Texas. That Florida figure is 20.1 percent of Florida's population, though some people tested more than once.
The overall positive rate was 13.54 percent Wednesday compared with 13.52 Tuesday.
The daily rate at one time was around 2-3 percent but has risen to 10.21. The previous lowest in two weeks was 10.71 on Thursday. 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 last time the first-time rate has been above 10.0 percent was 10.2 percent on Aug. 4.
Miami-Dade's figure decreased dropped under 10 percent for the first time in two weeks, 9.7, after 10.5 the day before. The highest was 26.4 on July 8. In Broward, the percentage also was a two-week low of 6.1 percent after 7.6 percent the day before.
Elsewhere, St. Lucie's rate was 6.9 percent one day after a two-week low of 6.5 percent but much lower than 15.9 Saturday and 14.2 Sunday. Martin was 11.8 after 12.7 and a 14-day low of 2.6 four days ago. Indian River has been under 5 percent five days in a row: the most recent two-week low of 3.3 after 3.6 the day before. Okeechobee's rate was 2.2 percent among 635 tests after 4.0 the day before when there were 227 tests and 2.2 on Sunday with 314; the two-week high of 30.2 on Aug. 6 among 86 tests.
Palm Beach County has 39,662 cases out of 300,192 total tested for 13.21 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 148,093 positive cases out of 757,975 tested for 19.54 percent, and Broward is second with 67,534 cases and 471,218 tested for 14.33 percentage.
In Martin County, it's 3,997 of 26,909 for 14.85 percent. In St. Lucie, it's 6,380 out of 46,440 for 13.74 percent, Indian River with 2,679 of 28,804 for 9.3 percent and Okeechobee 1,169 of 8,854 for 13.2 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 passed 790,000 deaths and passed 22.5 million cases Wednesday.
Palm Beach County's rate was 2.6 percent, compared with Broward at 1.6 percent and Miami-Dade with 1.5 percent. With much fewer deaths, the mortality rate is 3.3 percent in St. Lucie, 2.6 percent in Martin, 2.5 percent in Indian River and 1.0 percent in Okeechobee.
Florida has 462 deaths per 1 million people compared with the U.S. average of 532 per million. New York, which represents 18.7 percent of the deaths in the nation, has 1,693 per million. Worldwide, the figure is 101.4 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 24 deaths in the 15-24 class with no change. The youngest in Palm Beach County is a 22-year-old woman.
Sixty-five people from 25 to 34 also have died from the virus, which also stayed the same.
A total of 3,207 people 85 and older have died in the state from the virus, an increase of 51 in one day.
Ninety-three percent of the fatalities are 55 and older and 61 percent are 75 and older. 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 9,794 cases of infants to 4 years old, an increase of 71, and 223 were hospitalized, which was an increase of 1. From ages 5-14, there are 23,412, an increase of 201 with 197 in the hospital at one time, which rose by 1.
From the infant to 54 age group, 417,541 of the 577,891 residents tested. In that group, 710 have died, an increase of 11, for a 0.17 death percentage. From infant to 64, there are 492,878 cases. A total of 1,770, an increase of 33, have died for a 0.36 percentage.
Cities
West Palm Beach is in first place among Palm Beach County cities with 9,831, an increase of 39. Lake Worth, which includes the city and county portion, rose 27 to 6,943, followed by Boca Raton at 5,405, up from 5,380, Boynton Beach at 3,545 from 3,525 and Delray Beach at 2,686 vs. 2,674. A total of 861 in the county not designated by a city.
Port St. Lucie leads the Treasure Coast with 3,729, an increase of 33, followed by Fort Pierce at 2,334, up 192, and Stuart with 1,913, which was an increase of 18.
In Indian River County, Fellsmere, which has a population of 5,754, increased by 2 to 3842 compared with only 3 on May 31.
Hospitalizations
A total of 35,200 people in the state have been hospitalized, a rise from 32,537 seven days ago. That means it is a running total and includes people who have been released or died.
The number is 3,083 in Palm Beach County, an increase of 25 compared with 22 the day before; 359 in Martin, which was an increase of 2; 404 in St. Lucie with a rise of 8, Indian River increased by 4 to 225 and Okeechobee went from 116 to 119.
Long-term care
Forty-two percent of the deaths, 4,179 are residents and staff of long-term care, including 423 in Palm Beach County, which is second most in the state behind 665 in Miami-Dade. The state increase was 61 and in Palm Beach County it went up by 9.
National
Since the first death was reported five months ago on Feb. 29, the toll has risen to 176,337, an increase of 1,263 on Wednesday, according to Worldometers.info.
Johns Hopkins reports 172,970, a gain of 1,149.
Cases reached 5,700,931 with an increase of 44,957, according to Worldometers.info. They have exceeded 70,000 seven times, including a record 78,446 on July 24.
Last Wednesday in the U.S., there were 1,386 more deaths and 54,385 more cases.
The one week U.S. death increase was 7,206 at 4.2 percent.
New York has the most deaths in the nation with 32,937, including 5 more Wednesday, 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 11, No. 6 Massachusetts 28, No. 7 Illinois 24, No. 8 Pennsylvania 31, No. 9 Michigan 10, No. 10 Georgia 55.
Also, No. 12 Louisiana reported 55. No. 23 Washington, the original epicenter in the United States, had 12.
Worldwide
The U.S. represented 19.4 percent of the 6,500 additional deaths Wednesday and 22.3 percent of the world total though its population is only 4.3 percent of the global total. The one week world death increase was 39,639 at 5.3 percent.
Last Wednesday's death increase was 6,783.
Cases increased by 262,696, behind a record 289,648 on July 24.
Brazil, which is second behind the United States for deaths, reported 1,1701 after a record 1,554 on July 29 at 111,189. Brazil added 48,541cases for a total of 3,460,413 and only behind the U.S.
Mexico reported 707 more deaths late Wednesday compared with a high of 1,092 on June 4 for a total of 58,481 in third place.
India added 980 deaths to rise to 53,994 in fourth place. The Asian nation also reported a record 69,196 cases for a third-place total of 2,766,026 behind the U.S. and Brazil.
Four European nations are in the top 10. The United Kingdom reported an additional 16 deaths for 41,397 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 7 deaths. No. 7 France added 17 but 3,776 cases, the highest since 4,181 on May 6. No. 8 Spain announced 127 deaths, the highest since 179 on May 9, as well as 3,715 cases.
No. 9 Peru gained 177 Tuesday and No. 10 Iran had 153.
Russia is in fourth place in the world in cases with 937,321, including an additional 4,828. The nation gained 117 deaths for 11th place.
No. 17 Canada reported 4 deaths to rise to 9,049, as well as 268 cases.
Sweden, which has been doing "herd immunity," reported 5 deaths and has 5,802. Neighboring Norway remained at 262 deaths, as well as 51 more cases.
No. 27 China, the original epicenter of the world, hasn’t reported a death since April 26 and added 7 cases Thursday.
Japan reported 13 for a total of 1,128, and 865 cases.