WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Florida's coronavirus cases increased by 2,258, the lowest in more than two months, as the state's death toll increased by double-digits for two days in a row, a U.S.-high 72, and the first-time positivity rate remains near 5 percent, the Florida Department of Health announced Monday.
The cases were the lowest since 1,758 on June 15 with Sunday's increase 2,974. On Sunday, deaths rose 51, the lowest in more than one month. Data traditionally are lower from the weekend with the latest lowest death increase 35 on July 13.
The 45,603 total daily tests received from labs Sunday were the lowest in two weeks, including 61,680 the day before. The daily rate was 8.28, compared with 8.61 the day before and 7.07 day before that, which was the lowest since early June. The rate has been less than 10 percent for the past five days.
The first-time cases positivity rate was 5.20 percent compared with 5.70 the day before and previously 4.96, the lowest since June. The rate has been under 8 percent since Aug. 16.
In Palm Beach County, the first-time positivity rate moved above 5 percent to 5.3 on 2,869 total negative tests after successive rates of 4.26 and 3.61. The rate has been under 7 percent for seven days in a row.
The county daily cases increased by 176 compared with 183 the day before.
Palm Beach County's death toll increased by 2 to 1,061, second highest in the state behind Miami-Dade and ahead of Broward, after no deaths were reported Sunday.
On the Treasure Coast, St. Lucie increased by 4 to 218, Indian River went up by 1 to 90 and Martin County remained at 112. Indian River was the only county in the region to report an additional death Sunday. Okeechobee is at 13 with one death reported Saturday after 12 days in a row of no increases.
Broward increased by 19 and Miami-Dade rose by 10 deaths.
In South Florida, there were 36 of the 72 deaths – 50.0 percent – for a total of 4,869 at 46.8 percent though the population only comprises 30 percent.
Florida is in fifth place in the United States with 10,397 deaths, and nonresident deaths remained at 137 for a total of 10,534. On June 16, Florida was in 11th place in the nation.
Texas is in fourth place with the addition of 25 deaths Monday after a state-record 324 on Aug. 11, for a total of 11,395. California reported 18 new deaths and is in third place overall with 12,152.
Florida's new hospitalizations rose by 128 compared with 139 the day before. The state reported there are currently 4,658 hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19.
Deaths
The first two deaths were announced on March 6. It wasn't until April 24 the toll surpassed 1,000.
The deaths from last week were lower: 87 Monday and 107 last Sunday.
For six days in a row, deaths have been under 200 with Saturday's 106, Friday's119, Thursday's 117 and Wednesday's 174.
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 204, 228, 212, 225, 245, 252, 216.
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 25 with 180
In the state report Monday, it reported 72 deaths with no deaths removed after further determining a cause of death.
Pinellas rose by 13 to 612 deaths in fourth place and Hillsborough went up by 10 to 530 in fifth place. Polk went up by 3 to 407 in sixth and Lee remained at 402.
Deaths rose by `945 in the state over seven days (a daily average of 135) for 10.0 percent, a figure that had been more than 1,200 deaths recently. Two months ago the one-week figure was in the mid 200s. Palm Beach County rose by 69 for 7.0 percent. The U.S. figure is 3.9 percent with the world at 5.0 percent.
Miami-Dade climbed to 2,253, which is 196 more in one week. Broward increased to 1,132 with a rise of 152 in one week. Last week Broward passed Palm Beach County into second place.
Palm Beach County's death count is higher than 22 states, including Iowa's 1,044 after reporting 8 Monday and Rhode Island's 1,035 with an additional of 5.
The state on Monday identified two deaths in Palm Beach County: an 80-year-old man and an 85-year-old woman. St. Lucie County added three men (64, 67, 81) and an 82-year-old woman. Indian River's increase was a 78-year-old man.
Cases
Since the first two cases were announced on March 1, Florida's total has surged to 2.8 percent of the state's 21.48 million population with 602,829, second in the nation.
In one week, cases have risen by 26,735 at 4.6 percent, a percentage that has been steadily decreasing.
Nineteen days ago, Florida became the second state to pass 500,000 cases.
California has the most cases in the U.S. at 668,615 with the addition of 4,946, most in the U.S. on Monday. Texas had the second-most new cases, 2,754 and is third overall with 580,334. New York, which was the leader during much of the pandemic, is in fourth at 430,145 with 308 more.
Florida's daily case increases have been below 10,000 since July 26 when they climbed by 12,199.
For nine days, the state's cases have been below 5,000. The last time cases were lower were 2,610 on June 17 and 1,758 on June 15.
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 40,746, including residents and nonresidents.
Miami-Dade's cases were 662 compared with 772 and consistently more than 1,000 recently. Broward's increase was 247 vs. 145. In the Treasure Coast area, the rise over one day was 23 in St. Lucie, 8 in Martin, 9 in Indian River and none in Okeechobee.
Testing
Florida's total now is 4,453,929, fourth in the nation, behind No. 1 New York, No. 2 California and No. 3 Texas. That Florida figure is 20.7 percent of Florida's population, though some people tested more than once.
The overall positive rate was 13.53 percent Monday compared with 13.54 Sunday.
The daily rate at one time was around 2-3 percent but has risen to 8.28. The two-week high was 16.43 on Aug. 11. 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 was 9.13 one day after 9.14 and 7.17 two days ago, which was the lowest in two weeks though it has been under 10 percent for six days in a row. The highest was 26.4 on July 8. In Broward, the percentage remained under 5 percent for three successive days -- 4.34, after 4.83 and 4.87.
Elsewhere, St. Lucie's rate decreased to 4.53 from 5.86 and two-week low of 3.65 the day before and much lower than 16.02 last Saturday and 14.22 Sunday. Martin's rate also decreased from 6.91 to 4.40 and a 14-day low of 2.59 on Aug. 14. Indian River's rate dropped to a two-week low of 1.67 after 4.98 and 1.88. With no positive cases among 29 negative ones, Okeechobee's rate was zero one day after 11.96 on 81 tests. The high was 30.2 on Aug. 6 among only 60 positive tests.
Palm Beach County has 40,746 cases out of 309,689 total tested for 13.16 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 152,612 positive cases out of 782,903 tested for 19.49 percent, and Broward is second with 69,383 cases and 485,534 tested for 14.29 percentage.
In Martin County, it's 4,091 of 27,676 for 14.78 percent. In St. Lucie, it's 6,651 out of 48,196 for 13.8 percent, Indian River with 2,756 of 29,793 for 9.25 percent and Okeechobee 1,202 of 9,610 for 12.51 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 3.4 percent worldwide, which passed 816,500 deaths and passed 23.8 million cases Monday.
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, 2.8 percent in Martin, 2.9 percent in Indian River and 1.1 percent in Okeechobee.
Florida has 484 deaths per 1 million people compared with the U.S. average of 547 per million. New York, which represents 18.3 percent of the deaths in the nation, has 1,695 per million. Worldwide, the figure is 104.7 per million.
Age breakdown
The median age for all deaths in Florida is 79.
Four deaths are among youths 14 and under: a 6-year-old from Hillsborough, a 9-year-year old from Putnam and two 11-year-olds, a boy in Miami-Dade and a girl in Broward, among 4 in the 5-14 age class.
Four other juveniles are among the 27 deaths in the 15-24 class: a 16-year-old girl in Miami-Dade, a 16-year-old girl in Lee, a 17-year-old boy in Pasco and a 17-year-old boy in Manatee.
Sixty-nine people from 25 to 34 also have died from the virus, which was no change.
A total of 3,355 people 85 and older have died in the state from the virus, an increase of 23 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 10,174 cases of infants to 4 years old, an increase of 54, and 233 were hospitalized, which was no change. From ages 5-14, there are 24,429, an increase of 139 with 204 in the hospital at one time, which didn't increase.
From the infant to 54 age group, 430,312 of the 596,511residents tested. In that group, 744 have died, an increase of 4, for a 0.17 death percentage. From infant to 64, there are 508,354 cases. A total of 1,858 have died, an increase of 12, for a 0.37 percentage.
Cities
West Palm Beach is in first place among Palm Beach County cities with 10,114, an increase of 54. Lake Worth, which includes the city and county portion, rose 24 to 7,073, followed by Boca Raton at 5,554, up from 5,5287, Boynton Beach at 3,644 from 3,627 and Delray Beach at 2,778 vs. 2,771. A total of 883 in the county not designated by a city.
Port St. Lucie leads the Treasure Coast with 3,895, an increase of 14 followed by Fort Pierce at 2,417, up 6, and Stuart with 1,951, which was an increase of 5.
In Indian River County, Fellsmere, which has a population of 5,754, remained at 387, which was an increase of 2, compared with only 3 on May 31.
Hospitalizations
A total of 36,596 people in the state have been hospitalized, a rise from 34,194 seven days ago. That means it is a running total and includes people who have been released or died.
The number is 3,146 in Palm Beach County, an increase of 5 compared with 1 the day before; 369 in Martin, which was an increase of 1; 428 in St. Lucie with a rise of 7, Indian River increased by 1to 242 and Okeechobee remained at 125.
Long-term care
Forty-two percent of the deaths, 4,384 are residents and staff of long-term care, including 448 in Palm Beach County, which is second most in the state behind 674 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 181,114, an increase of 510 on Monday, according to Worldometers.info.
Johns Hopkins reports 176,802, a gain of 623.
Cases reached 5,915,630 with an increase of 41,484,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 571 more deaths and 40,576 more cases.
The one week U.S. death increase was 6,859 at 3.9 percent.
New York has the most deaths in the nation at 32,972, with 5 reported Monday, after a high of 799 in April.
Among other states in the top 10 for deaths: No. 2 New Jersey 2, No. 6 Massachusetts 28, No. 7 Illinois 8, No. 8 Pennsylvania 3, No. 9 Michigan 4, No. 10 Georgia 24.
No. 11 Arizona reported no deaths and 311 cases. No. 23 Washington, the original epicenter in the United States, had 4.
Worldwide
The U.S. represented 11.8 percent of the 4,328 additional deaths Monday and 22.1 percent of the world total though its population is only 4.3 percent of the global total. The one week world death increase was 39,237 at 5.0 percent.
Last Monday's death increase was 4,298.
Cases increased by 212,466, behind a record 289,648 on July 24.
Brazil, which is second behind the United States for deaths, reported 679 after a record 1,554 on July 29 at 114,451. Brazil added 21,434 cases for a total of 3,627,217 and only behind the U.S.
Mexico reported 320 more deaths late Monday compared with a high of 1,092 on June 4 for a total of 563,705 in third place.
India added 854 deaths to rise to 58,546 in fourth place. The Asian nation also reported 59,696 cases two days after record 70,068 cases for a third-place total of 3,164,881, behind the U.S. and Brazil.
Four European nations are in the top 10. The United Kingdom reported an additional 4 deaths for 41,433 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 16 deaths and No. 8 Spain 12.
No. 9 Peru gained 160 and No. 10 Iran had 133.
Russia is in fourth place in the world in cases with 961,493, including an additional 4,744. The nation gained 66 deaths and is in 12th.
No. 17 Canada reported 10 deaths to rise to 9,083, as well as 751 cases.
Sweden, which has been doing "herd immunity," reported 6 deaths and has 58,13 total. Neighboring Norway announced zero deaths for the fourth day in a row to remain at 264 deaths, as well as 72 more cases.
No. 27 China, the original epicenter of the world, hasn’t reported a death since April 26 and added 14 cases Tuesday.
Japan reported 5 deaths for a total of 1,181 Monday as well as 760 cases, the lowest since 607 on July 27.