Florida newly reported coronavirus deaths increased by 204, the ninth time they were more than 200 as cases rose by 6,352 and the positivity rates continued to be near target levels of less than 10.0 percent, the Florida Department of Health announced Saturday.
Total daily tests again stayed under 100,000 for the ninth day in a row at 96,167 as the positivity rate of tests received from labs Friday declined to 10.97, slightly more than the two-week low of 10.69 the day before when there were 89,073 tests. The first-time cases positivity rate dropped to a two-week low of 7.71 percent from 8.06 the day before and a two-week high of 11.90 percent.
In Palm Beach County, the first-time positivity rate declined to 6.2 percent, tying the two-week low from three days earlier. In addition, increased cases were 327 after 367 the day before.
Palm Beach County's fatalities increased by 13 to 989, second in the state behind Miami-Dade, after 11 Friday and a record 27 one week ago Friday.
On the Treasure Coast, St. Lucie rose 1 to 196 after a record 14 Tuesday as Martin remained at 104 and Indian River went up 3 to 65. Okeechobee, which reported its first 2 fatalities on July 25, stayed at 12.
Miami-Dade rose by 48 and Broward went up by 26.
In South Florida, there were 91 of the 204 deaths reported – 44.6 percent – reported for a total of 4,353 at 46.6 percent though the population only comprises 30 percent.
Florida is in fifth place in the United States with 9,345 deaths and nonresident deaths remained at 135 for a total of 9,480.
Texas is in fourth place with the addition of a U.S.-high 238 deaths after 313 deaths Friday and Tuesday's state-record 324, for a total of 9,840. California reported 151 new deaths and is in third place overall with 11,147.
Florida represented 19.0 percent of the deaths and 11.8 percent of the cases in the United States on Saturday, according to Worldometers.info.
New hospitalizations rose by 506 compared with 618 the day before.
Deaths
Friday's increase was 228 and the state record was 276 on Tuesday. The previous record was 257 on July 31. Others in the 200s were 212, 225, 245, 252, 216.
Last Saturday's increase was 180.
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 Friday 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 Saturday it reported 205 new deaths but one was removed after further determining a cause of death for a net gain of 204.
Pinellas rose by 5 to 541 deaths in fourth place and Hillsborough went up by 31 to 458 in fifth place. No. 6 Lee climbed by 3 to 371.
Deaths rose by 1,236 in the state over seven days (a daily average of 177) for 15.2 percent and in Palm Beach County it was 60 for 6.5 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.
Less than two months ago there were 3,021 deaths. And it passed 5,000 on July 20.
Miami-Dade climbed to 2,047, which is 209 more in one week. Broward increased to 940 with a rise of 151 in one week.
Palm Beach County's death count is higher than 21 states, including Iowa's 973 after gaining 6 Saturday.
The state on Saturday identified 13 fatalities in Palm Beach County, which were six men (57, 69, 78, 80, 82, 88) and 6 women (51, 57, 60, 62, 78, 82, 85). The 60-year-old woman became a case on April 30. Indian River had three more deaths, two men 66 and one 79. St. Lucie's additional death was an 88-year-old man.
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 569,637, second in the nation.
In one week, cases have risen by 43,106 at 8.2 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 613,689 with the addition of a U.S.-high 12,614. Texas had the second-most cases, 9,840, and is third overall with 528,838. New York, which was the leader during much of the pandemic, is in fourth at 424,167 with 734 more.
Florida's cases have been below 10,000 for 19 days when they climbed by 12,200 on Saturday, July 26.
The state's case increase Friday was 6,148. Monday was 4,155, the lowest since June 23 when there were 3,276.
Last Saturday's 8,502 increase was the first time in one week the number was above 8,000.
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 were 327 compared with 367 the day before. The record was 1,171 July 5 for a total of 38,902, including residents and nonresidents.
Miami-Dade's cases increased 1,745 compared with 2,678 the day before.
Broward's increase was 642 vs. 628. In the Treasure Coast area, the rise over one day was 67 in St. Lucie, 6 in Martin, 22 in Indian River and 32 in Okeechobee.
Testing
The total now is 4,209,375, fourth in the nation, behind No. 1 New York, No. 2 California and No. 3 Texas. That Florida figure is 19.6 percent of Florida's population, though some people tested more than once.
The overall positive rate was 13.53 percent after 13.52 Friday.
Several weeks ago the daily rate was around 2-3 percent but has risen to 10.97. 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 was a two-week low of 10.7 percent compared with 10.9 percent the day before. The highest was 26.4 on July 8. In Broward, the percentage also was a two-week low, 7.2 percent compared with 7.5 the day before.
Elsewhere, St. Lucie was 9.7 percent after 7.6 percent the day before and two-week low of 6.9 on Aug. 2. Martin was a 14-day low of 2.3 with the previous low 3.7 three days ago and the day before was 5.9 percent. Indian River's figure was a two-week low of 3.4 after 7.4 the day before and the previous low of 4.0 two days earlier. Okeechobee's rate was 4.9 percent among 650 tests one day after 3.2 percent among 216 tests and a two-week high of 30.2 on Aug. 6 among 86 tests.
Palm Beach County has 38,902 cases out of 293,666 total tested for 13.25 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 144,407 positive cases out of 737,494 tested for 19.58 percent, and Broward is second with 66,011 cases and 459,293 tested for 14.37 percentage.
In Martin County, it's 3,913 of 26,569 for 14.73 percent. In St. Lucie, it's 6,192 out of 45,278 for 13.68 percent, Indian River with 2,640 of 28,214 for 9.36 percent and Okeechobee 1,125 of 7,316 for 15.38 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 3.6 percent worldwide, which neared 768,000 deaths and passed 21.5 million cases Saturday.
Palm Beach County's rate was 2.6 percent, compared with Broward at 1.4 percent and Miami-Dade with 1.4 percent. With much fewer deaths, the mortality rate is 3.2 percent in St. Lucie, 2.7 percent in Martin, 2.5 percent in Indian River and 1.1 percent in Okeechobee.
Florida has 435 deaths per 1 million people compared with the U.S. average of 521 per million. New York, which represents 19.0 percent of the deaths in the nation, has 1,691 per million. Worldwide, the figure is 98.5 per million.
Age breakdown
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 3,044 people 85 and older have died in the state from the virus, an increase of 52 in one day.
Ninety-four percent of the fatalities are 55 and older, an increase of 1 percentage point, and 62 percent are 75 and older. A smaller percentage of older people have tested positive – 28 percent age 55 and older, up by 1 percentage point, and 7 percent 75 and older.
At the other end of the age spectrum, there are 9,490 cases of infants to 4 years old, an increase of 133, and 215 were hospitalized, which was an increase of 4. From ages 5-14, there are 22,669, an increase of 451 with 192 in the hospital at one time, which is an increase of 2.
From the infant to 54 age group, 407,982 of the 563,628 residents have tested. In that group, 674 have died, an increase of 9, for a 0.16 death percentage. From infant to 64, there are 481,374 cases. A total of 1,659, an increase of 37, have died for a 0.34 percentage.
Cities
West Palm Beach is in first place among Palm Beach County cities with 9,700, an increase of 100. Lake Worth, which includes the city and county portion, rose 44 to 6,826 followed by Boca Raton at 5,305up from 5,254, Boynton Beach at 3,467 from 3,432 and Delray Beach at 2,639 vs. 2,622. A total of 846 in the county not designated by a city.
Port St. Lucie leads the Treasure Coast with 3,626, an increase of 22, followed by Fort Pierce at 2,265, up 32, and Stuart with 1,870, which was no change.
In Indian River County, Fellsmere, which has a population of 5,754, increased by 3 to 382 compared with only 3 on May 31.
Hospitalizations
A total of 33,661people in the state have been hospitalized, a rise from 30,251 seven days ago. That means it is a running total and includes people who have been released or died.
The number is 3,015 is in Palm Beach County, an increase of 21 compared with 34 the day before; 350 in Martin, which was an increase of 3; 390 in St. Lucie with a decrease of 1, Indian River increased by 1 to 214 and Okeechobee increased from 110 to 112.
Long-term care
Forty-two percent of the deaths, 3,944, are residents and staff of long-term care, including 405 in Palm Beach County, which is second most in the state behind 650in Miami-Dade. The state increase was 58 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 172,606, an increase of 1,071 on Saturday, according to Worldometers.info.
Johns Hopkins reports 169,463, a gain of 1,067.
Cases reached 5,529,789, with an increase of 53,523, according to Worldometers.info. They have exceeded 70,000 seven times, including a record 78,446 on July 24.
Last Saturday in the U.S., there were 986 more deaths and 56,114 more cases.
The one week U.S. death increase was 7,468 at 4.5 percent.
New York has the most deaths in the nation with 32,901, including 6 more Saturday, 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 15, No. 6 Massachusetts 16, No. 7 Illinois 5, No. 8 Pennsylvania 12, No. 9 Michigan 20, No. 10 Georgia 96.
Also, Arizona moved past Connecticut and Louisiana in 11th with 69 more deaths though its case increase was only 933. No. 18 North Carolina added 55 and No. 19 South Carolina 56. No. 23 Washington, the original epicenter in the United States, had 9.
Worldwide
The U.S. represented 20.8 percent of the 5,152 additional deaths Friday and 22.5 percent of the world total though its population is only 4.3 percent of the global total. The one week world death increase was 40,222 at 5.3 percent.
Last Saturday's death increase was 5,581.
Cases increased by 248,817, behind a record 289,648 on July 24.
Brazil, which is second behind the United States for deaths, reported 726 Saturday after a record 1,554 on July 29 at 107,297. Brazil added 38,937 cases for a total of 3,317,832 and only behind the U.S.
Mexico reported 635 more deaths late Saturday compared with a high of 1,092 on June 4 for a total of 56,543 in third place.
India added 950 deaths to rise to 50,084 in fourth place. The Asian nation also reported 63,986 cases for a third-place total of 2,589,208, behind the U.S. and Brazil.
Four European nations are in the top 10. The United Kingdom reported an additional 3 deaths for 41,361 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 4 and No. 8 Spain reported no data.
No. 9 Peru gained 208 deaths late Friday and No. 10 Iran had 161Friday.
Russia is in fourth place in the world in cases with 917,884, including an additional 5,061. The nation gained 119 deaths for 11th place.
No. 17 Canada reported 4 deaths to rise to 9,024, as well as 237 cases.
Sweden, which has been doing "herd immunity," reported 7 deaths for 5,783 and listed no new cases Friday with no data Saturday. Neighboring Norway reported 4 deaths Friday, tying the most since June 22, to rise to 261, as well as 57 more cases.
No. 27 China, the original epicenter of the world, hasn’t reported a death since April 26 and added 19cases Sunday.
Japan reported 12 deaths, the most since 17 on June 20 after 10 Friday, for 1,085 and 1,360 cases.