WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Florida's newly reported deaths rose by 51, the lowest in more than a month, including no fatalities in Palm Beach County, as cases passed 600,000 but with an increase of 2,974. Also the positivity rates continue to trend below the target 10 percent rate, the Florida Department of Health announced Sunday.
On Saturday, the death increase was 106 and cases rose by 4,311. Data traditionally is lower from the weekend with the latest lowest death increase 35 on July 17. Cases have only been below 3,000 one other time since late June: 2,678 on Monday.
Total daily tests have remained under 100,000 for more than two weeks with the latest, 61,686, of tests received from labs Saturday. The rate was 8.61, which spiked from 7.08 percent, which was the lowest since early June on 98,6124 tests. The rate has been less than 10 percent for the past four days.
The first-time cases positivity rate was 5.52 percent compared with 4.89 the day before, the lowest since June. The rate has been under 8 percent since data one Sunday ago.
In Palm Beach County, the first-time positivity rate dropped to 3.54 on 5,097 negative tests after 4.08 the day before. The rate has been under 8 percent for all but one day over two weeks, 8.8 percent on Aug. 10. The rate has been under 7 percent for six days in a row.
The county daily cases increased by 183 compared with 230 the day before.
Palm Beach County's death toll remained at 1,059, second highest in the state behind Miami-Dade and ahead of Broward, after 11 deaths were reported Saturday, including the youngest in the county, a 20-year-old man, after 9 the day before.
Indian River was the only county on the Treasure Coast to report a fatality, a 58-year-old man, rising to 79. St. Lucie stayed at 214 and Martin at 112. Okeechobee is at 13 with one death reported Saturday after 12 days in a row of no increases.
Broward increased by 25 and Miami-Dade rose by 5 deaths.
In South Florida, there were 31 of the 51 deaths – 60.8 percent – for a total of 4,833 at 46.8 percent though the population only comprises 30 percent.
Florida is in fifth place in the United States with 10,325 deaths, and nonresident deaths remained at 137 for a total of 10,462. On June 16, Florida was in 11th place in the nation.
Texas is in fourth place with the addition of 111 deaths Sunday after a state-record 324 on Aug. 11, for a total of 11,370. California reported 146 new deaths, which was the most in the nation, and is in third place overall with 12,134.
Florida's new hospitalizations rose by 139 compared with 332 the day before.
Deaths
The first two deaths were announced on March 6. It wasn't until April 24 the toll surpassed 1,000.
The deaths from the weekend were lower: 87 Monday and 107 last Sunday.
For five days in a row, deaths have been under 200 with Friday's fatalties 119, Thursday's 117 and Wednesday's 174.
Tuesday's death increase of 212 was the ninth time they surpassed 200. The state record was 276 on Tuesday, Aug. 11. The previous record was 257 on July 31. Others in the 200s were 204, 228, 212, 225, 245, 252, 216.
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 25 with 180
In the state report Sunday, it reported 52 deaths but 1 was removed after further determining a cause of death for a net increase of 51.
Pinellas rose by 4 to 599 deaths in fourth place and Hillsborough went up by 1 to 520 in fifth place. Polk remained at 404 in sixth and Lee increased by 3 to 402.
Deaths rose by `873 in the state over seven days (a daily average of 125) for 9.2 percent, a figure that had been more than 1,200 recently. Two months ago the one-week figure was in the mid 200s. Palm Beach County rose by 67 for 6.8 percent. The U.S. figure is 4.0 percent with the world at 5.1 percent.
Miami-Dade climbed to 2,243, which is 186 more in one week. Broward increased to 1,113 with a rise of 133 in one week. Last week Broward passed Palm Beach County into second place.
Palm Beach County's death count is higher than 22 states, including Iowa's 1,036 after reporting 6 Sunday and Rhode Island's 1,030 with no data reported.
The state on Sunday identified a death in Palm Beach County, a 77-year-old man, with no explanation of whether this was a new fatality and the one stricken from the list was in the county.
Cases
Since the first two cases were announced on March 1, Florida's total has surged to 2.8 percent of the state's 21.48 million population with 600,571, second in the nation.
In one week, cases have risen by 27,155 at 4.8 percent, a percentage that has been steadily decreasing.
Eighteeen days ago, Florida became the second state to pass 500,000 cases.
California has the most cases in the U.S. at 663,669 with the addition of 6,777, most in the U.S. on Sunday. Texas had the second-most new cases, 34,93 and is third overall with 577,537. New York, which was the leader during much of the pandemic, is in fourth at 429,737 with 572 more.
Florida's daily case increases have been below 10,000 since July 26 when they climbed by 12,199.
For the past week, the state's cases have been below 5,000: 3,779 Sunday, 2,678 Monday, 3,858 Tuesday, 4,115 Wednesday, 4,555 Thursday, 4,684 Friday. The last time cases were lower were 2,610 on June 17 and 1,758 on June 15.
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 have been much lower since the record 1,171 July 5. The total now is 40,570, including residents and nonresidents.
Miami-Dade's cases were 772 compared with 909, the first time in several weeks it has been below four digits. Broward's increase was 245 vs. 339. In the Treasure Coast area, the rise over one day was 43 in St. Lucie, 16 in Martin, 11 in Indian River and 7 in Okeechobee.
Testing
Florida's total now is 4,435,417, fourth in the nation, behind No. 1 New York, No. 2 California and No. 3 Texas. That Florida figure is 20.6 percent of Florida's population, though some people tested more than once.
The overall positive rate was 13.54 percent Sunday compared with 13.56 Saturday.
The daily rate at one time was around 2-3 percent but has risen to 8.61. The two-week high was 16.44 on Aug. 11. 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 last time the first-time rate has been above 10.0 percent was 10.2 percent on Aug. 4. Although the first-time rate of 3.54 was the lowest over two weeks, the total tests were among the highest -- more than 5,000 for three days and a low of 1,918 on Aug. 16.
Miami-Dade's figure increased to 8.55 from 6.78, which was the lowest in two weeks though it has been under 10 percent for five days in a row. The highest was 26.4 on July 8. In Broward, the percentage remained under 5 percent -- 4.38 after 4.89.
Elsewhere, St. Lucie's rate increased to 5.72 from a two-week low of 3.65 the day before and much lower than 15.9 last Saturday and 14.2 Sunday. Martin's rate also increased from 4.53 to 6.91 and a 14-day low of 2.59 on Aug. 14. Indian River surged from 2.00 to 4.98 though the rate has been around 4 percent or less for eight times in the past two weeks. Okeechobee's rate climbed to 11.9 but there were only 81 negative tests after 4.37 the day before on 197 tests and a previous two-week low of 1.79 on only 338 tests. The high was 30.2 on Aug. 6 among only 60 positive tests.
Palm Beach County has 40,5707 cases out of 308,494 total tested for 13.15 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 151,986 positive cases out of 780,128 tested for 19.48 percent, and Broward is second with 69,136 cases and 483,311 tested for 14.3 percentage.
In Martin County, it's 4,083 of 27,612 for 14.79 percent. In St. Lucie, it's 6,628 out of 48,020 for 13.8 percent, Indian River with 2,747 of 29,559 for 9.29 percent and Okeechobee 1,202 of 9,592 for 12.53 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 3.4 percent worldwide, which passed 812,000 deaths and passed 23.6 million cases Sunday.
Palm Beach County's rate was 2.6 percent, compared with Broward at 1.6 percent and Miami-Dade with 1.5 percent. With much fewer deaths, the mortality rate is 3.2 percent in St. Lucie, 2.8 percent in Martin, 2.9 percent in Indian River and 1.1 percent in Okeechobee.
Florida has 481 deaths per 1 million people compared with the U.S. average of 545 per million. New York, which represents 18.3 percent of the deaths in the nation, has 1,695 per million. Worldwide, the figure is 104.2 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, among 4 in the 5-14 age class.
Four other juveniles are among the 27 deaths in the 15-24 class: 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.
Sixty-nine people from 25 to 34 also have died from the virus, which was no change.
A total of 3,332 people 85 and older have died in the state from the virus, an increase of 11 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 10,120 cases of infants to 4 years old, an increase of 56, and 233 were hospitalized, which was no change. From ages 5-14, there are 24,290, an increase of 153 with 204 in the hospital at one time, which rose by 1.
From the infant to 54 age group, 428,791 of the 594,287 residents tested. In that group, 739 have died, an increase of 3, for a 0.17 death percentage. From infant to 64, there are 506,521 cases. A total of 1,846 have died, an increase of 11, for a 0.36 percentage.
Cities
West Palm Beach is in first place among Palm Beach County cities with 10,060, an increase of 60. Lake Worth, which includes the city and county portion, rose 42 to 7,073, followed by Boca Raton at 5,528, up from 5,507, Boynton Beach at 3,627 from 3,611 and Delray Beach at 2,771 vs. 2,754. A total of 880 in the county not designated by a city.
Port St. Lucie leads the Treasure Coast with 3,881, an increase of 22 followed by Fort Pierce at 2,411, up 17, and Stuart with 1,946, which was an increase of 7.
In Indian River County, Fellsmere, which has a population of 5,754, remained at 385 compared with only 3 on May 31.
Hospitalizations
A total of 36,468 people in the state have been hospitalized, a rise from 33,928 seven days ago. That means it is a running total and includes people who have been released or died.
The number is 3,141 in Palm Beach County, an increase of 1 compared with 21 the day before; 368 in Martin, which was an increase of 2; 421 in St. Lucie with no change, Indian River increased by 2 to 241 and Okeechobee went from 124 to 125.
Long-term care
Forty-two percent of the deaths, 4,348 are residents and staff of long-term care, including 447 in Palm Beach County, which is second most in the state behind 673 in Miami-Dade. The state increase was 23 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 180,604, an increase of 430 on Sunday, the lowest since 425 on Aug. 3, according to Worldometers.info.
Johns Hopkins reports 176,797, a gain of 444.
Cases reached 5,874,146 with an increase of 32,718, the lowest since 31,558 on June 22, according to Worldometers.info. They have exceeded 70,000 seven times, including a record 78,446 on July 24.
Last Sunday in the U.S., there were 527 more deaths and 37,698 more cases.
The one week U.S. death increase was 6,920 at 4.0 percent.
New York has the most deaths in the nation at 32,967, with 17 reported Sunday, after a high of 799 in April.
Among other states in the top 10 for deaths: No. 2 New Jersey 2, No. 6 Massachusetts no data, No. 7 Illinois 6, No. 8 Pennsylvania none, No. 9 Michigan 4, No. 10 Georgia 40.
No. 11 Arizona reported 15 deaths and 208 cases, with the later the lowest since 187 on June 1. No. 23 Washington, the original epicenter in the United States, had 6.
Worldwide
The U.S. represented 10.1 percent of the 4,248 additional deaths Sunday and 22.2 percent of the world total though its population is only 4.3 percent of the global total. The one week world death increase was 39,178 at 5.1 percent.
Last Sunday's death increase was 4,569.
Cases increased by 206,768, behind a record 289,648 on July 24.
Brazil, which is second behind the United States for deaths, reported 495 after a record 1,554 on July 29 at 114,744. Brazil added 23,085 cases for a total of 3,605,783 and only behind the U.S.
Mexico reported 226 more deaths late Sunday compared with a high of 1,092 on June 4 for a total of 560,164 in third place.
India added 846 deaths to rise to 57,692 in fourth place. The Asian nation also reported 61,479 on day after record 70,068 cases for a third-place total of 3,105,185, behind the U.S. and Brazil.
Four European nations are in the top 10. The United Kingdom reported an additional 6 deaths for 41,429 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 7 deaths. No. 7 France added 1 as well as 4,897, the highest since April, and No. 8 Spain reported no data.
No. 9 Peru gained 210 and No. 10 Iran had 141.
Russia is in fourth place in the world in cases with 956,749, including an additional 4,852. The nation gained 73 deaths and is in 12th.
No. 17 Canada reported 2 deaths to rise to 9,073, as well as 267 cases.
Sweden, which has been doing "herd immunity," reported no data this weekend and has 5,810 deaths. Neighboring Norway announced zero deaths for the third day in a row to remain at 264 deaths, as well as 19 more cases.
No. 27 China, the original epicenter of the world, hasn’t reported a death since April 26 and added 16 cases Monday.
Japan reported 7 deaths for a total of 1,176 Sunday.