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Coronavirus death toll rises by 46 in state, including 3 in Palm Beach County

Palm Beach County coronavirus map
Posted at 11:41 AM, May 22, 2020
and last updated 2020-05-26 10:42:07-04

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The coronavirus death toll rose by 46 in the state to 2,190 and by 3 in Palm Beach County to 311 -- lower numbers than the day before, the Florida Department of Health announced Friday morning.

On Thursday, the state reported 48 new deaths and Palm Beach County rose by a record 17, the most in the state. Last Friday, the increases were 42 in the state and 8 in the county.

On Tuesday, April 28, the county also reported 17 additional deaths and the state posted a record 83. Traditionally, numbers surge on Tuesdays after weekend data are lower.

New cases statewide dropped significantly from 1,204 to 776 for a total of 49,451. In Palm Beach County, they climbed by 104, compared with 192 Thursday. Gov. Ron DeSantis posted on Twitter on Thursday a “big dump of tests results” were reported to the health department.

The Treasure Coast area reported 24 new cases, compared with 70 the day before.

Martin recorded the only death in the area, a 61-year-old woman, rising to 9. Remaining the same were St. Lucie at 28, Indian River at 9 and Okechobee none.

Miami-Dade County has the most deaths in the state, increasing by 12 to 614 in one day. Broward County remained at 286, which is 25 behind Palm Beach County. Broward didn't report a death Thursday. Lee is in fourth place with 92, a rise of 4.

Sixteen of the 46 additional deaths are linked to South Florida, which accounts for 1,257 deaths for 57.4 percent of the state total though the population comprises 30 percent.

The state positive test rate dropped one-tenth of a percentage point to 5.9 with the rate more than 10 percent for several weeks. The most recent positive daily rate was 3.5 percent compared with 2.7 percent Thursday.

In all, there were 21,588 additional tests reported Friday compared with 42,915 Thursday. A total of 837,172 have been tested with 786,045 negative results and the remaining 1,676 inconclusive or not reported.

The mortality rate involving positive cases is 4.4 percent in the state compared with 5.9 percent in the United States and 6.4 percent worldwide, which neared 340,000 and neared 5.3 million cases early Friday night. Palm Beach County's rate was 6.2 percent, compared with Broward at 4.4 percent and Miami-Dade with 3.7 percent. With much fewer deaths, the mortality rate is 8.0 percent in St. Lucie, 8.2 percent in Indian River and 1.7 percent in Martin.

The deaths in the state range from a 26-year-old man in Miami to 103-year-old women, one in Miami-Dade and another reported Thursday in Escambia. Ninety-four percent of the fatalities are 55 and older and 63 percent 75 and older in state data. A smaller percentage of older people have tested positive -- 42 percent 55 and older and 14 percent 75 and older. At the other end of the age spectrum, there are 355 cases of infants to 4 years old and 733 among the 49,451 testing positive.

Palm Beach County's death count is higher than 18 states, including Oklahoma with 307. Three deaths reported Friday include men from 77 to 80.

The county's total number of confirmed cases range from newborn to 104. Martin County also reported on Sunday an infant girl tested positive.

West Palm Beach leads Palm Beach County with 961 cases, followed by Lake Worth Beach with 874, Boca Raton with 592, Boynton Beach with 542, Delray Beach with 453 and Belle Glade has 320. The most cases on the Treasure Coast are in Port St. Lucie with 245.

In Martin County, Stuart's cases remained at 198 after jumping from 177 Wednesday. Indiantown went to 183 after 180 Thursday and 152 Wednesday.

Palm Beach County has 5,072 cases out of 61,100 total tested, including 110 awaiting results, for 8.3 percent, not including those awaiting tests and inconclusive. Anything above 10.0 percent is considered out of "target range" by the health department.

Miami-Dade leads with 16,522 positive cases out of 154,665 tested for 10.7 percent, and Broward is second with 6,580 cases and 89,963 tested for 7.3 percentage.

In St. Lucie, it's 363 positive out of 8,889 for 4.1 percent, Martin with 476 of 6,126 for 7.8 percent, Indian River with 112 out of 4,580 for 2.4 percent and Okeechobee with 55 out of 1,409 for 3.9 percent. Martin's percentage was 10.8 percent Tuesday.

On Thursday, Indian River reported the youngest person testing positive, a 5-year-old boy. The previous youngest was an 8-year-old boy.

A total of 9,117 people in the state have been hospitalized at one time, which is 171 more than the day before. That means it is a running total and includes people who have been released or died. The number is 1,038 in Palm Beach County, 88 in St. Lucie, 68 in Martin, 31 in Indian River and 7 in Okeechobee.

Florida is in 11th in the nation for total deaths behind Maryland, according to Worldometers.info. Maryland has reported 17 more deaths than Florida, including 48 Friday.

Florida has 102 deaths per 1 million people compared with the U.S. average of 295 per million. New York, which represents one-third of the deaths in the nation, has 1,491 per million. Worldwide, the figure is 43.5 per million.

National data

The death toll was 97,647 with 1,296 additional deaths after 1,418 Thursday. Cases hit 1,643,304 with 22,407 additional ones. Last Friday, there were 1,602 additional deaths and 26,692 more cases.

Four states reported additional deaths in triple figures, the same as Thursday.

Pennsylvania's death toll grew by 141 to 5,061 in sixth place after 98 Thursday. New Jersey reported the second most deaths in the nation, 134, after 105 Thursday, to rise to 10,986 in second place.

Neighboring New York reported 124, which is 3 less than Thursday, to remain No. 1 with 29,009. A few weeks ago, nearly 800 deaths were reported in one day in the state.

And Illinois added 108 deaths, compared with 82 the day before, for sixth place with 4,715.

In double digits were No. 3 Massachusetts with 80, No. 4 Michigan with 29, No. 7 California with 69, No. 8 Connecticut with 55, No. 9 Louisiana with 39.

Georgia is in 14th place with an increase of 33. No. 18 Washington, which was the original epicenter in the United States, is in 18th, reporting 6 more deaths to reach 1,050 and 148 new cases. Worldometer incorrectly listed no deaths Friday.

One week ago Friday in the United States, there were 88,895 deaths, two weeks ago there were 78,615, three weeks ago 65,756, four weeks ago 52,191, five weeks ago 37,448, six weeks ago 22,038, seven weeks ago 8,839, eight weeks ago 2,110, nine weeks ago 309, 10 weeks ago 48, 11 weeks ago 15 and 12 weeks ago none.

Worldwide

The U.S. represented 24.6 percent of the 51,33 additional deaths and 28.8 percent of the world total Friday though its population is only 4.3 percent of the global total.

Like for the past two weeks, deaths have been skyrocketing in Brazil, which reported an additional 966 deaths Friday after a record 1,188 Thursday. In 14 days, Brazil has more than doubled from 9,952 to 21,048. One week ago, the toll was 14,817. The South American nation reported 1,969 cases after a record 21,472 Wednesday for a total of 330,890 in second place behind the United States and passing Russia.

The United Kingdom, which is second behind the United States in total deaths at 36,393, reported 351 additional ones after 338 Thursday. The record was 1,172 on April 21.

Italy, which at one time was the epicenter of the world, is in third place at 32,616, gaining 130, compared with 156 Thursday. The high of 919 was on March 27 at 32,007.

Spain moved up to fourth place after reporting 688 more deaths to climb to 28,628, but the Health Ministry reported 56 additional fatalities in the past 24 hours and the big jump is due to the various regions “cleaning” their datasets.

Nations in the top 10 reporting additional deaths in double figures are No. 5 France with 74, No. 7 Belgium with 26, No. 8 Germany with 43, No. 9 Iran with 51.

Mexico moved past Canada into 10th place, reporting 479 additional deaths, a record, late Friday night for a total of 6,989. Canada added 98 deaths Friday.

No. 13 China, the original epicenter, reported zero new deaths Saturday – the last one reported was April 26 -- and no new cases for the first time.

Sweden, which has been doing "herd immunity," reported 54 more deaths in 15th place with 3,925 as well as 637 new cases. Neighboring Norway reported zero deaths to stay at 235 as well as 13 more cases.

Russia continues to surge in cases with 8,894 more for a total of 326,448. Russia reported 150 more deaths to rise to 3,249 in 17th, passing Peru.

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