WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Florida newly reported coronavirus deaths increased by 228 as total residents' deaths passed 9,000, cases rose by 6,148 and the positivity rates declined, the Florida Department of Health announced Friday.
Total daily tests again stayed under 100,000 for the eighth day in a row at 89,084 as the positivity rate declined to a two-week low of 10.70 percent of tests received Thursday from labs from 13.73 the day before when there were 77,972 tests. The first-time cases positivity rate dropped to a two-week low of 8.08 percent from 9.50 the day before. The health department's target rate is less than 10 percent.
In Palm Beach County, the first-time positivity rate declined to 6.5 percent from 7.1 the day before. The low was 6.2 two days earlier. In addition, increased cases were 367 after 274 the day before.
Palm Beach County's fatalities increased by 12 to 976, second in the state behind Miami-Dade, after 10 Thursday and a record 27 one week ago Friday. The state updated its county report two hours later from an additional increase of 10 as well as other data.
On the Treasure Coast, St. Lucie rose 7 to 195 after a record 14 Tuesday as Martin increased by 3 to 104 and Indian River went up 4 to 62. Okeechobee, which reported its first 2 fatalities on July 25, stayed at 12.
Miami-Dade rose by 45 and Broward went up by 31.
Florida is in fifth place in the United States with 9,141 deaths and nonresident deaths rose by 1 to 135 for a total of 9,271.
Texas is in fourth place with the addition of 313 deaths Friday, two days after a state-record 324 for a total of 9,602. California reported 188 new deaths and is in third place overall with 10,996.
Florida represented 20.4 percent of the deaths and 15.1 percent of the cases in the United States on Friday, according to Worldometers.info.
New hospitalizations rose by 6`18 compared with 590 the day before.
Deaths
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.
Thursday's increase was 148 and last Friday's 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 Thursday 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 16 with 172.
In the state report Friday no previous deaths were removed after further determining a cause of death.
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.
In South Florida, there were 102 of the 220 deaths – 46.4 percent – reported for a total of 4,262 at 46.6 percent though the population only comprises 30 percent.
Deaths rose by 1,214 in the state over seven days (a daily average of 173) for 15.3 percent and in Palm Beach County it was 575 for 6.2 percent. Two months ago the one-week figure was in the mid 200s. The U.S. figure is 4.3 percent with the world at 5.6 percent.
Less than two months ago there were 3,021 deaths. And it passed 5,000 on July 20.
Miami-Dade climbed to 1,999, which is 190 more in one week. Broward increased to 914 with a rise of 132 in one week.
Palm Beach County's death count is higher than 21 states, including Iowa's 966 after gaining 6 Friday.
The state on Friday identified 11 fatalities in Palm Beach County though the increase was 12: 4 men (55, 70, 81, 89) and 7 women (64, 71, 80, 84, 88, 91, 98). The St. Lucie fatalities were five men (34, 78, 82, 82, 86), a woman (72) and an unknown (72). Martin's deaths were 2 women (84, 91) and a man (80), and Indian River's were 3 men (71, 79, 95) and 1 woman (85).
Cases
Since the first two cases were announced on March 1, Florida's total has surged to 2.6 percent of the state's 21.48 million population with 563,285, second in the nation.
In one week, cases have risen by 45,210 at 8.7 percent. One week ago Wednesday, Florida became the second state to pass 500,000 cases.
California became the first state to pass 600,000 cases, 601,075, with the addition of a U.S.-high 7,934. Texas had the third-most cases, 7,018, and is third overall with 520,593. New York, which was the leader during much of the pandemic, is in fourth at 424,17 with 727 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 Thursday was 6,236, just 88 less than Friday. Wednesday was 8,109, Tuesday was 5,409 and Monday was 4,155, the lowest since June 23 when there were 3,276.
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 367 compared with 274 the day before. The record was 1,171 July 5 for a total of 37,575, including residents and nonresidents.
Miami-Dade's cases increased 2,678 compared with 1,623 the day before.
Broward's increase was 628 vs. 641. In the Treasure Coast area, the rise over one day was 85 in St. Lucie, 24 in Martin, 34 in Indian River and 6 in Okeechobee.
Testing
The total now is 4,148,396, fourth in the nation, behind No. 1 New York, No. 2 California and No. 3 Texas. That Florida figure is 19.3 percent of Florida's population, though some people tested more than once.
The overall positive rate was a record 13.52 percent after 13.49 Thursday.
Several weeks ago the daily rate was around 2-3 percent but has risen to 10.70. 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 10.9 percent compared with 12.8 percent the day before. The highest was 26.4 on July 8. In Broward, the percentage was a two-week low of 7.6 percent compared with 9.0 the day before.
Elsewhere, St. Lucie was 5.9 after 6.3 percent the day before and two-week low of 6.9 on Aug. 2. Martin was 6.3 percent after matching a 14-day low of 3.9 percent set Aug. 1. Indian River's figure was 7.2 one day after a 14-day low of 4.0 percent. Okeechobee's rate was a two-week low of 3.2 percent among 216 tests compared with 11.1 the day before of 35 tests and a two-week high of 30.2 on Aug. 6.
Palm Beach County has 38,575 cases out of 291,132 total tested for 13.3 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 142,821 positive cases out of 727,821 tested for 19.6 percent, and Broward is second with 65,369 cases and 454,317 tested for 14.4 percentage.
In Martin County, it's 3,907 of 26,392 for 14.8 percent. In St. Lucie, it's 6,125 out of 44,965 for 13.6 percent, Indian River with 2,618 of 27,944 for 9.4 percent and Okeechobee 1,093 of 6,789 for 16.1 percent.
Mortality rate
The mortality rate compares positive cases against deaths.
It is 1.6 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 passed 762,000 deaths and passed 21.3 million cases Friday.
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, 2.4 percent in Indian River and 1.1 percent in Okeechobee.
Florida has 426 deaths per 1 million people compared with the U.S. average of 518 per million. New York, which represents 19.2 percent of the deaths in the nation, has 1,691 per million. Worldwide, the figure is 97.8 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 one added. 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 increased by 3.
A total of 2,992 people 85 and older have died in the state from the virus, an increase of 62 in one day.
Ninety-three percent of the fatalities are 55 and older and 62 percent are 75 and older. A smaller percentage of older people have tested positive – 27 percent age 55 and older and 7 percent 75 and older, with both numbers going up 1 percentage point.
At the other end of the age spectrum, there are 9,357 cases of infants to 4 years old, an increase of 102, and 211 were hospitalized, which was an increase of 9. From ages 5-14, there are 22,218 an increase of 314 with 189 in the hospital at one time, which is an increase of 7.
From the infant to 54 age group, 403,640 of the 557,337 residents have tested. In that group, 665 have died, an increase of 10, for a 0.16 death percentage. From infant to 64, there are 476,177 cases. A total of 1,622, an increase of 44, have died for a 0.34 percentage.
Cities
West Palm Beach is in first place among Palm Beach County cities with 9,600, an increase of 58. Lake Worth, which includes the city and county portion, rose 68 to 6,782 followed by Boca Raton at 5,254, up from 5,212, Boynton Beach at 3,432 from 3,384 and Delray Beach at 2,622 vs. 2,599. A total of 833 in the county not designated by a city.
Port St. Lucie leads the Treasure Coast with 3,604, an increase of 37, followed by Fort Pierce at 2,233, up 42, and Stuart with 1,870 vs. 1,863.
In Indian River County, Fellsmere, which has a population of 5,754, increased by 1 to 379 compared with only 3 on May 31.
Hospitalizations
A total of 33,155 people in the state have been hospitalized, a rise from 29,730 seven days ago. That means it is a running total and includes people who have been released or died.
The number is 2,994 is in Palm Beach County, an increase of 34 compared with 51 the day before; 347 in Martin, which was an increase of 5; 391 in St. Lucie with an increase of 5, Indian River increased by 6 to 213 and Okeechobee increased from 108 to 110.
Long-term care
Forty-three percent of the deaths, 3,886, are residents and staff of long-term care, including 404 in Palm Beach County, which is second most in the state behind 643 in Miami-Dade. The state increase was 81 and in Palm Beach County it went up by 8.
National
Since the first death was reported five months ago on Feb. 29, the toll has risen to 171,535, an increase of 1,120 on Friday, according to Worldometers.info.
Johns Hopkins reports 168,396, a gain of 1,290.
Cases reached 5,476,266, with an increase of 60,600, according to Worldometers.info. They have exceeded 70,000 seven times, including a record 78,446 on July 24.
Last Friday in the U.S., there were 1,292 more deaths and 63,413 more cases.
The one week U.S. death increase was 6,983 at 4.3 percent.
New York has the most deaths in the nation with 32,894, including 8 more Friday, 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 10, No. 6 Massachusetts 20, No. 7 Illinois 24, No. 8 Pennsylvania 38, No. 9 Michigan 11, No. 10 Georgia 35.
Also, No. 11 Connecticut reported 3 and No. 13 Arizona 40. No. 23 Washington, the original epicenter in the United States, had 19.
Worldwide
The U.S. represented 19.6 percent of the 5,946 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 40,434 at 5.6 percent.
Last Friday's death increase was 6,385.
Cases increased by 285,994, behind a record 289,648 on July 24.
Brazil, which is second behind the United States for deaths, reported 1,007 after a record 1,554 on July 29 at 106,523. Brazil added 49,274 cases for a total of 3,278,895 and behind the U.S.
Mexico reported 615 more deaths late Friday compared with a high of 1,092 on June 4 for a total of 55,908 in third place.
India added 990 deaths to rise to 49,134 in fourth place. The Asian nation also reported 65,609 cases for a third-place total of 2,525,222, behind the U.S. and Brazil.
Four European nations are in the top 10. The United Kingdom reported an additional 11 deaths for 41,358 in fifth place. The daily high was 1,172. No. 6 Italy, which at one time was the world's epicenter and reached 919 in one day, reported 3 deaths. No. 7 France added 18 and No. 8 Spain reported 12.
No. 9 Peru gained 168 deaths late Thursday and No. 10 Iran had 169 Friday.
Russia is in fourth place in the world in cases with 912,823, including an additional 5,065. The nation gained 114 deaths for 11th place.
No. 17 Canada reported 5 deaths to rise to 9,020, as well as 418 cases.
Sweden, which has been doing "herd immunity," reported 7 deaths for 5,783 and listed no new cases. Neighboring Norway reported 4 deaths, 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 22 cases Saturday.
Japan reported 10 deaths, the most since 17 on June 20, for 1,033 and 1,070 cases Friday.