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State's new coronavirus deaths diminish to 177; cases up 2,541

State's daily first-time positivity rate back under 5%, Palm Beach County again below 4%
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Posted at 11:52 AM, Sep 24, 2020
and last updated 2020-09-24 23:43:10-04

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Florida's newly reported coronavirus deaths increased by a U.S.-high 177, compared with 202 the day before, as cases rose by 2,541, just 49 less than the previous report, as positivity rates declined in back-to-back days, the Florida Department of Health announced Thursday.

The state's first-time daily cases rate of all tested is back under 5 percent, 4.45, after 5.26 the day before, a two-week low of 3.84 Sept. 13 with every day over 14 days under 6 percent. Palm Beach County rate dropped from 4.39 to 3.16, similar to the two-week low of 2.96 on Sept. 13 with the high 6.77 two days ago. The county's rate has been under 4 percent five times over 14 days.

The state's total daily positivity rate for all tests decreased to 5.63 percent on 63,874 tests reported by labs to the state Wednesday from 7.19 on 54,470. The two-week low was 5.16 percent on Sept. 13 and the high was 5.73 two days ago. The record test total was 142,964 July 11. In Palm Beach County there were 119 positive tests reported to the state on 3,769 total tested.

It was the second day in a row Florida had the most newly reported deaths in the nation.

Deaths are up from three days with 99 reported Tuesday after low data from the weekend: 9 Sunday and then 21 on Monday. Last Thursday, the deaths climbed by 147.

The record is 276 on Aug. 11.

Since the first two deaths were announced on March 6, which is 202 days, the death toll has climbed to 13,795 among residents, with an average of 68 per day, and 13,961 including 166 nonresidents, which went up by 2.

On Sept. 9, the death toll passed 12,000 to 12,115 and eight days later passed 13,000 on Thursday,

It took 49 days for Florida's death toll of residents to reach the first 1,000 yet it was only 40 days to more than double. Two months ago, July 20, there were 5,075 deaths.

Palm Beach County increased by 22 to 1,308, third highest in the state behind Miami-Dade and Broward, which was the same total the previous day but below the record of 27 on Aug. 7. On the Treasure Coast, St. Lucie increased by 2 to 273, Martin rose by 1 to 139, Indian River remained at 115. Okeechobee stayed at 24 with its first two deaths on July 25.

Broward increased by 15 and Miami-Dade by 36.

In South Florida, there were 76 of the 177 deaths, which is 42.9 percent, for a total of 6,402 6,326 at 46.4 percent though the population only comprises 30 percent.

Cases in Florida are much lower than three months ago.

On Wednesday cases rose by 2,590, Tuesday's was 2,470 and Monday cases by 1,685, which was the lowest since 1,371 on June 10. Then, on June 15 they hit 1,758.

The last time cases were above 4,000 was 4,684 on Aug. 22.

Palm Beach County's daily cases increased by 123 after 141 the day before and a low of 100 two weeks ago.

Florida's new hospitalizations rose by 187 compared with 170 the day before. The state reported Thursday there are currently 2,173 hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19, which is 81 less than the day before.

Deaths

Florida is in fifth place in the United States. On June 16, Florida was in 11th place in the nation.

Texas is in fourth place with the addition of 138 deaths after a state-record 324 on Aug. 11, for a total of 15,267. California reported 110 new deaths and is in third place overall with 15,314, just 47 ahead of Texas.

State and county increases represent fatalities received by the state Wednesday 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. The most deaths the past month: 108 on Aug. 26.

In a state report Thursday, 177 deaths were added from the last day's report and none removed after determining they weren't related to COVID-19.

Deaths rose by 709 in the state over seven days (a daily average of 101) for 5.4 percent, a figure tally that had been more than 1,200 deaths recently. Two months ago the one-week figure was in the mid 200s. Palm Beach County increased by 76 for 6.1 percent. The U.S. figure is 2.6 percent with the world at 3.9 percent.

Miami-Dade rose to 3,163, which is 186 more in one week. Broward increased to 1,358 with a rise of 47 in one week. St. Lucie has risen by 14 deaths in one week compared with Martin by 7, Indian River by 6 and Okeechobee by 2.

Palm Beach County's death count is higher than 23 states, including Iowa's 1,302 after adding 8 Thursday.

Pinellas increased by 3 to 739 deaths in fourth place and Hillsborough went up by 6 to 620 in fifth place. Polk rose by 6 to 520 in sixth and Lee increased by 4 to 466.

On Thursday, the state identified 22 deaths in Palm Beach County: 11 men (53, 61, 67, 71, 76, 78, 78, 85, 88, 95, 95) and 11 women (46, 47, 65, 65, 74, 77, 80, 84, 84, 97, 98) with the 46-year becoming a case on April 9. St. Lucie's new deaths were two men (78, 79) and Martin reported a 94-year-old woman.

Cases

Since the first two cases were announced on March 1, Florida's total has surged to 3.2 percent of the state's 21.48 million population with 693,040, third in the nation. The average over 207 days is 3,348 per day.

In one week, cases have risen by 18,584, which averages 2,655 per day, at 2.8 percent.

Cases passed 600,000 Aug. 23 and 500,000 on Aug. 5.

California has the most cases in the U.S. at 790,640 with the addition of 3,170. Texas had a U.S.-high 3,840 and is second overall with 723,919. New York, which was the leader during much of the pandemic, is in fourth at 452,857 with 965 more.

Florida's daily case increases have been below 10,000 since July 26 when they climbed by 12,199. Early in the pandemic, cases 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.

In Palm Beach County, new cases have been much lower since the record 1,171 July 5. The total now is 45,866, including residents and nonresidents.

Miami-Dade's cases were 392 compared with 365 and Broward's increase was 283 vs. 202. In the Treasure Coast area, the rise over one day was 25 in Martin, 35 in St. Lucie, 16 in Indian River, 3 in Okeechobee.

Testing

Florida's total number of people tested is 5,186,646, which is 24.1percent of the state's population behind No. 1 California, No. 2 New York, No. 3 Texas and No. 4 Illinois, which recently surpassed Florida.

The overall Florida positive rate decreased to 13.36 percent from 13.37 the day before.

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 rate decreased from 5.02 percent to 4.44, which is among all but two days over two weeks under 5 percent, including a two-week low of 3.59 six days ago and a two-week high 5.48 two days ago. The rate hit 26.4 on July 8. Broward's rate declined to 3.16 after a two-week high of 4.95, the first time it was over 4 percent in two weeks with a two-week low of 2.34 on Sept. 13.

Elsewhere, St. Lucie's rate has been under 5 percent for nine days in a row, including most recently 3.56 after 3.97, a two-week low of 2.4 on Sept. 12 with a two-week high of 7.13 on Sept. 14. Martin's rate was 6.15 percent after 8.57, a two-week low of 1.59 on Sept. 15 and a high of 9.86 five days ago. Indian River's rate was 5.16 percent after 5.29, a two-week high of 5.97 two days ago and a two-week low of 2.09 on Sept. 11, which was among three days under 3 percent. Okeechobee's rate dropped to 4.26 percent on 45 tests after 11.57 on 107 tests, a two-week high of 34.33 percent on 44 tests two days ago and a low of 6.12 on 46 negative tests on Sept. 12.

Palm Beach County has 45,866 cases out of 360,880 total tested for 12.71 percent overall, not including those awaiting tests and inconclusive.

Miami-Dade leads with 168,272 positive cases out of 900,767 tested for 18.68 percent, and Broward is second with 76,329 cases and 558,150 tested for 13.68 percentage.

In Martin County, it's 4,832 of 34,881 for 13.85 percent. In St. Lucie, it's 7,910 out of 60,300 for 13.12 percent, Indian River with 3,145 of 35,124 for 8.95 percent and Okeechobee 1,504 of 10,927 for 13.76 percent.

Mortality rate

The mortality rate compares positive cases against deaths.

The state's rate increased to 2.0 percent for all deaths and cases, including nonresidents, compared with 2.9 percent in the United States and 3.0 percent worldwide, which passed 987,000 deaths and passed 32.4 million cases Thursday, according to Worldometers.info.

Palm Beach County's rate was 2.9 percent, compared with Broward at 1.8 percent and Miami-Dade with 1.9 percent. With much fewer deaths, the mortality rate is 3.5 percent in St. Lucie, 2.9 percent in Martin, 3.7 percent in Indian River and 1.6 percent in Okeechobee.

Florida has 642 deaths per 1 million people compared with the U.S. average of 626 per million. New York, which represents 16.5 percent of the deaths in the nation, has 1,706 per million. Worldwide, the figure is 126.6 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. This class did not change.

Four other juveniles are among the 31 deaths in the 15-24 class, including 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. This class didn't have any additions.

Ninety-one people from 25 to 34 also have died from the virus, which went up by 1.

A total of 4,438 people 85 and older have died in the state from the virus, an increase of 47 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 11,707 cases of infants to 4 years old, an increase of 50, and 276 were hospitalized, which went up by 3. From ages 5-14, there are 28,890, an increase of 157 with 249 in the hospital at one time, with 1 more.

From the infant to 54 age group, there are 493,174 of the 684,847 residents' cases. In that group, 937 have died, with an increase of 16, for a 0.19 death percentage. From infant to 64, there are 580,199 cases. A total of 2,444 have died, an increase of 35, for a 0.42 percentage.

Cities

West Palm Beach is in first place among Palm Beach County cities with 11,275, with an increase of 23. Lake Worth, which includes the city and county portion, rose by 16 to 7,830 followed by Boca Raton at 6,629 up from 6,594 Boynton Beach at 4,052 from 4,048 and Delray Beach at 3,115 vs. 3,111. A total of 1,073 in the county not designated by a city. In addition, the list of cities includes separate listings of misspellings and miscoded counties.

Port St. Lucie leads the Treasure Coast with 4,673, an increase of 27, followed by Fort Pierce at 2,774, up 6, and Stuart with 2,256, which increased by 15.

In Indian River County, Fellsmere, which has a population of 5,754, remained at 410 compared with only 3 on May 31.

Hospitalizations

A total of 43,129 people in the state have been hospitalized, a rise from 42,047 seven days ago. That means it is a running total and includes people who have been released or died.

The number is 3,603 in Palm Beach County, with an increase of 7 compared with 18 the day before; 390 in Martin, which went up by 2; St. Lucie at 652 with an increase of 3, Indian River remained at 294 and Okeechobee went from 168 to 169.

Long-term care

Forty-one percent of the deaths, 5,636 are residents and staff of long-term care, including 582 in Palm Beach County, which is second most in the state behind 787 in Miami-Dade. The state increase was 68 and Palm Beach County went up by 14.

National

Since the first death was reported six months ago on Feb. 29, the toll has risen to 202,738, a gain of 854, according to Johns Hopkins. Worldometers reported an increase of 942 to 207,538.

Cases reached 6,975,087with an increase of 46,853. They have exceeded 70,000 seven times, including a record 78,446 on July 24 and the last time was July 31.

Last Thursday in the U.S., there were 870 more deaths and 44,360 cases.

The one week U.S. death increase was 5,105 at 2.6 percent.

New York has the most deaths in the nation at 33,095 with 5 reported after a high of 799 in April.

Among other states in the top 10 for deaths: No. 2 New Jersey 10, No. 6 Massachusetts 15, No. 7 Illinois 30, No. 8 Pennsylvania 13, No. 9 Michigan 6, No. 10 Georgia 49.

Also, No. 11 Arizona reported 34 deaths, as well as an additional 567 cases. No. 24 Washington, the original epicenter in the United States, adding none.

Worldwide

The U.S. represented 16.0percent of the 5,872 additional deaths Thursday and 21.0 percent of the world total though its population is only 4.3 percent of the global total. The one week world death increase was 36,875 at 3.9 percent.

Last Thursday's death increase was 5,573.

Cases increased by a record 314,855, just behind the record 15,717 Thursday, according to Worldometers.info.

Brazil, which is second behind the United States for deaths, reported 818 deaths to rise to 138,883. Brazil's record is 1,554 on July 29. The nation added 32,129 cases at 4,659,909 in third place.

India reported 86,508 cases after a world-record 97,894 six days before to rise to 5,732,518, which is second in world behind U.S. Also, India recorded a world-high 1,129 deaths, eight days after a national-record 1,299, to rise to 91,149 and in third place.

Mexico announced 490 more deaths late Thursday compared with a high of 1,092 on June 4 for a total of 75,439 in fourth place.

Four European nations are in the top 11 as cases are surging on the continent in record daily numbers. The United Kingdom reported 40 additional deaths for 41,902 in fifth place with the record daily high 1,172, as well as a record 6,634 cases, beating the mark of 6,178 one day before and previously 5,086 on May 7. No. 6 Italy, which at one time was the world's epicenter and reached 919 in one day, reported 23 deaths. No. 8 France announced 52 deaths, as well as a record 16,096 cases, beating last week's mark of 13,498. Spain reported 84 deaths and is in ninth place, just 393 behind France and 10,653 cases, behind a record one day earlier of 11,289.

No. 7 Peru announced 68 deaths and is 427 ahead of France. No. 10 Iran reported 175 deaths.

Russia is in fourth place in the world in cases with 1,128,836, including an additional 6,595. The nation gained 149 deaths and is in 12th.

No. 20 Canada reported 3 deaths for a total of 9,246 and 1,035 cases.

Sweden, which has been doing "herd immunity" with no lockdown, reported 5 deaths and is at 5,878. Neighboring Norway reported 3 deaths to rise to 270, as well as 129 more cases.

No. 30 China, the original epicenter of the world, hasn’t reported a death since April 26, and added 8 cases Friday.