WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Florida's reported coronavirus deaths rose by a weekly record of 2,448 (350 daily), including four children under 16, though cases' rise diminished in one week by 28% to 100,249.
Also, the 12,651 hospitalizations are less the record 17,295 three weeks ago and 14,577 one week ago, with more than three-quarters of adults receiving at least one vaccine dose and the weekly first-time infection positivity rate of 13.5 is more than 1 percentage points down in a week. But several South Florida Counties are reporting much higher rates: Okeechobee at 29.0%, St. Lucie at 20.9%, Indian River at 16.8%, Martin at 18.5% but Palm Beach County at 11.6%.
A greater percentage of young people are recently being affected. The under 12 age group has the most new cases at 1,7,165 with a 15.0% first-time positivity rate. In the 12-19 age group the positivity rate is the highest among the classes at 18.2% with 13,947 new cases and only 52% fully vaccinated. Conversely, the positivity rate is 9.7% for those 65 and older with 88% fully vaccinated.
In data released by the Florida Department of Health late Friday afternoon, the cumulative death toll is 48,772 and cases are 3,409,165 with the state among only three topping 3 million milestone.
And based upon a CDC cumulative death total of 48,276 from the previous day, the most recent daily increase is 496.
Deaths can take several days or even weeks to be reported to the state so the figures will fluctuate.
The state set a record for most deaths in one day: 330 on Aug. 20. Until the recent spike, the record was 242 on Aug. 4, 2020.
The record increase was 276 on Aug. 11 when the state was giving daily reports.
The highest seven-day moving average is 306 (2,142) daily on Aug. 23. Until the spike, the record was 227 (1,589 weekly) only Aug. 5.
Last year the highest weekly seven-day increase was 1,266 (181 daily) on Aug. 16, 2020. The first-time daily positivity rate last year 9.04% with the target 5 percent or less. Earlier this year it was less than 5%.
The previous week's gain for deaths was 2,345, which means they went by 103. Last week the cases' increase was 129,202 and two weeks ago a record 152,760.
The state listed 355 deaths occurred in the past week with 433 deaths the week before and 346 previously. In newly reported deaths, there were four additional deaths of children under 16 years old, raising the total to 17 since the pandemic, with 24 more deaths among those 16-29 for a total of307
The new cases in the state over one week were 100,012, which is different than 100,249 increase because of revisions.
The daily cases record is 27,784 reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Aug. 26.
The CDC's most recent increase was 17,854 reported Thursday.
Cases reached 107,653 (`15,379 daily) on Jan. 8 until the spike. The CDC lists the seven-day moving average of 14,259 with the record 2`1,758 Aug. 16.
The CDC is now only reflecting the date of occurrence for cases and deaths rather than when reported to the Florida Department of Health. It can take several days or even weeks for the state to receive a report of a death. The CDC twice a week has been revising the previous cumulative totals as more data are reported.
The state has never listed increases on its since disbanded website and reports as media outlets, including WPTV, did the math each day.
Daily cases have exceeded 8,000 daily since July 15, 12,000 since July 21, 15,000 since Aug. 2.
On June 4, Florida switched to weekly reports from daily -- the first state in the nation reporting any data every seven days. In addition, the state's dashboard was removed, as well as current hospitalization data. Michigan and Ohio, which are in the top 10 for most deaths, reports deaths only a few days per week.
According to data received by the CDC Thursday, U.S. deaths rose 1,727 and cases were up 167,638.
The first-time daily positivity rate was 7.8 nine weeks ago. The daily record was 23.38% on Dec. 28.
The state, which is the third most-populous with 16.5% of the population, is fourth in the nation, behind California with 66,422, with 165 in the past day reported, Texas with 58,332, including a daily increase of 400, and New York with 54,602, with a rise of 33.
Florida is third in cases behind California with 4,331,605, a rise of 9,244, and Texas with 3,787,220, including 23,594 Friday.
The overall first-time positivity rate is 21.3%, up 0.3% in one week.
The state reports don't include nonresidents' deaths and cases.
The weekly reports don't list deaths for each county but include other data:
Palm Beach County: Cases: 210,204 residents (5,548new). First-time positivity average in past week: 11.6%.
St. Lucie County: Cases: 44,152 resident (1,744 new). First-daily positivity in past week: 20.9%
Martin County: Cases: 18,574 residents (777 new). First-daily positivity in past week: 18.5%
Indian River County: Cases: 20,654 residents (692new). First-daily positivity in past week: 16.8%
Okeechobee County: 6,787 residents (377 new). First-daily positivity in past week: 29.0%.
Broward County: 32336,741residents (7,108 new). First-daily positivity in past week: 9.4%.
Miami-Dade County: 642,199 residents (9,733 new). First-daily positivity in past week: 6.5%.
In other data, the state reported there are 17 deaths under 16 (increase of four) and 441,765 cases (416,660 previous week). At the other extreme, for 65 and older there are 37,891 deaths (36,373 previous week), which is 77.7% of total) and 428,040 cases (428,040 previous week), which is 12.9% of total.
The state's mortality rate (cases vs. deaths) was 1.4%, including 8.6% for 65 and older but less than 1% in younger ages except 2.0% for 60-64. It is 1.6% in the United States and 2.1% worldwide.
In deaths per million, Florida is 2,248 (12th in nation), U.S. 2,029, world 593.8. New York, which represents 8.6% of the deaths in the nation, has 2,834 per million, third behind New Jersey at 3,044 and Mississippi at 2,992.
Florida's deaths are 7.2% of the total in the U.S. and 8.2% of the cases. The state comprises 6.6% of the U.S. population.
Since the first two cases were announced on March 1, 2020, Florida's total has surged to 15.9% of the state's 21.48 million population, second in cases per million behind Tennessee. In cases per 100,000 for seven days, Florida is 10th at 464.8 with south Carolina No. 1 at 645.0, Kentucky second at 621.1 and West Virginia No. 3 at 592.4, according to the CDC.
The CDC has directed states to generally count one case per person unless the virus was contracted again more than 90 days.
Florida is second in total tests at 37,801,373 behind New York with 53,781,443. Some people have taken more than one test.
In one week, there were 603,542 tests, which is 86,220 daily. On Dec. 23 there were a record 150,587 tests.
Hospitalizations reached 12,651 compared with 16,457 two weeks ago. It was 4,262 on July 10 with the record until recently 10,179 on July 23, 2020, according to data from the U.S. Department of Health. Of the 261 hospitals reporting, 21.51% are occupied with COVID-19 patients and 83.46% (49,920 with all patients of the 59,810 total beds. The day before 259 hospitals reported data.
In state vaccination data from the CDC, 76.6% of Florida's population 18 and older has had at least one dose (13,211,504) and 64.7% fully vaccinated (11,163,556). President Joe Biden had set a nationwide goal of 70% vaccinated by July 4 with at least one dose by adults and the current figure is 75.4. Totally vaccinated is 64.7%.
Twenty-nine states (no change in week) achieving the 70% standard are Hawaii (89.0%), Massachusetts (87.8%), Vermont (87.5%), Connecticut (86.6%), New Mexico (84.7%), New Jersey (84.4%), Rhode Island (84.4%), Maine (83.8%), Pennsylvania (83.5%), California (83.4%), Washington (82.5%), Maryland (82.0%), New York (81.3%), Illinois (79.6%), New Hampshire (78.6%), Virginia (78.4%), Delaware (76.9%), Florida (76.6%), Oregon (76.5%), Colorado (76.2%), Minnesota (75.5%), Utah (73.5%), Nebraska (71.9%), Kansas (71.7%), Texas (71.6%), Wisconsin (71.4%), Nevada (71.2%), South Dakota (71.1%), Kentucky (71.0%)
The three worst percentages: West Virginia 56.4%, Wyoming 57.4%, Mississippi at 59.2%.
Also reaching the benchmark are Puerto Rico (86.1%), Guam (84.4%), District of Columbia (79.9%).
For those 12 and older in Florida, 73.8% had at least one dose (13,975,462) and the complete series is 61.5% (11,506,646).
For the total population, the percentage is 65.1% (13,983,394) and the complete series is 54.6% (11,736,562).