WEST PALM BEACH — Florida's reported coronavirus deaths rose by a weekly record of 2,468 (353 daily), which is 20 more than the previous week, and two more youths 16 and under, as cases declined in one week by 31.9% to 75,998, the first time in two months they were under 100,000 and half as many as the record three weeks ago.
Also, the 9,585 hospitalizations are less the record 17,295 one month ago on Aug. 19, with 77.5% of adults receiving at least one vaccine dose, a rise of about 1 percentage points and the weekly first-time infection positivity rate of 11.2 is more than 2.3 percentage points down in a week. But several South Florida Counties are reporting higher rates: Okeechobee at 26.2%, St. Lucie at 16.2%, Indian River at 13.1%, Martin at 14.2 % but Palm Beach County at 10.0%, Broward 7.8% at and Miami-Dade at 5.8%.
A greater percentage of young people are recently being affected. The under 12 age group has the most new cases at 12,202, down from 17,165 with a 13.0% first-time positivity rate. In the 12-19 age group the positivity rate is the highest among the classes at 14.9% with 9,657 new cases a week after 13,947 and only 53% fully vaccinated. Conversely, the positivity rate is 8.0% 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 51,240, fourth state to pass the 50,000 milestone, and cases are 3,485,163 with the state among only three topping the 3 million milestone.
And based upon a CDC cumulative death total of 50,817 from the previous day, the most recent daily increase is 423.
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: 369 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%.
For the third week in a row, increased deaths surpassed 2,000, with 2,345 two weeks ago. Last week, the cases' increase was 100,249 and three weeks ago a record 152,760.
The state listed 384 deaths occurred in the past week with 355 deaths the week before and 433 previously. In newly reported deaths, children under 16 years old rose by 2 to 19 since the pandemic, with 33 more among those 16-29 for a total of 340.
The new cases in the state over one week were 75,906, which is different than 75,998 increase because of revisions. On July 16, new cases were 73,011 and the previous week 45,430.
The daily cases record is 27,784 reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Aug. 26.
On Sept. 1 the new cases were 21,563, the last time it was above 21,0009.
Cases weekly reached 107,653 (`15,379 daily) on Jan. 8 until the spike. The CDC lists the seven-day moving average of 10,837 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.
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 1,823 and cases were up 147,581 with Florida accounting for 7.6%.
The first-time daily positivity rate was 7.8 10 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 67,358, with 90 in the past day reported, Texas with 60,357, including a daily increase of 377 and New York with 54,602, with a rise of 33.
Florida is third in cases behind California with 4,397,469, a rise of 8,153, and Texas with 3,903,306 including 18,628 Friday.
The overall first-time positivity rate is 21.3%, the same as last week.
The state reports don't include nonresidents' deaths and cases.
The weekly reports don't list deaths for each county though it is now available by the CDC but include other data:
Palm Beach County: Cases: 214,792residents (4,568 new). First-time positivity average in past week: 10.0%.
St. Lucie County: Cases: 45,511 resident (1353 new). First-daily positivity in past week: 16.2%
Martin County: Cases: 19,144 residents (582 new). First-daily positivity in past week: 14.2%
Indian River County: Cases: 21,245residents (582 new). First-daily positivity in past week: 13.1%
Okeechobee County: 7,078 residents (307 new). First-daily positivity in past week: 26.2%.
Broward County: 342,204 residents (5,503 new). First-daily positivity in past week: 7.8%.
Miami-Dade County: 649,565 residents (7,423new). First-daily positivity in past week: 5.8%.
In other data, the state reported there are 17 deaths under 16 (increase of four) and 459,255 cases (441,765 previous week). At the other extreme, for 65 and older there are 39,432 deaths (37,891 previous week), which is 77.0% of total) and 448,426 cases (428,040 previous week), which is 12.9% of total.
The state's mortality rate (cases vs. deaths) was 1.4%, including 8.8% for 65 and older but less than 1% in younger ages except 2.1% for 60-64. It is 1.6% in the United States and 2.1% worldwide.
In deaths per million, Florida is 2,366 (12th in nation), U.S. 2,086, world 601.9. New York, which represents 8.6% of the deaths in the nation, has 2,848 per million, third behind Mississippi at 3,096 and New Jersey at 3,058.
Florida's deaths are 7.7% of the total in the U.S. total and 8.3% 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 16.2% 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 353.2 (last week 10th) with West Virginia No. 1 at 765.3, Tennessee 765.3 second at 764.0 and Alaska No. 3 at 664.5, 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 38,501,830 behind New York with 54,721,102 with no data from California. Some people have taken more than one test.
In one week, there were 540,344 tests in Florida, which is 77,192 daily. On Dec. 23 there were a record 150,587 tests.
Hospitalizations reached 9,585 compared with 12,651 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 255 hospitals reporting, 16.51% are occupied with COVID-19 patients and 82.58% (48,725 with all patients of the 59,005 total beds. The day before 253 hospitals reported data. Florida is second behind Tesas with 13,371 hospitalized with coronaviurs.
In state vaccination data from the CDC, 77.5% of Florida's population 18 and older has had at least one dose (13,365,549) and 65.9% fully vaccinated (11,362,926). 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 76.2. Totally vaccinated is 65.5%.
Thirty-one states (two more in week in week) achieving the 70% standard are Hawaii (89.9%), Massachusetts (88.3%), Vermont (88.0%), Connecticut (87.3%), New Mexico (85.4%), Rhode Island (85.4%), New Jersey (85.1%), Maine (84.6%), Pennsylvania (84.3%), California (84.1%), Washington (83.7%), Maryland (82.6%), New York (82.4%), Illinois (80.2%), New Hampshire (79.3%), Virginia (79.3%), Delaware (77.6%), Florida (77.5%), Oregon (77.3%), Colorado (76.6%), Minnesota (75.9%), Utah (74.1%), Texas (72.5%), Nebraska (72.4%), Kansas (72.3%), Nevada (72.1%), Kentucky (72.0.%), Wisconsin (72.0%), South Dakota (71.9%), Arizona (70.2%), Iowa (70.0%).
The three worst percentages: West Virginia 56.7%, Wyoming 58.3%, Mississippi at 60.3%.
Also reaching the benchmark are Puerto Rico (87.6%), Guam (86.3%), District of Columbia (80.7%).
For those 12 and older in Florida, 75.7% had at least one dose (14,148,761) and the complete series is 64% (11,964,610).
For the total population, the percentage is 65.9% (14,156,730) and the complete series is 55.7% (11,966,293).