NewsState

Actions

Coronavirus death toll spikes by 60 in state, including 5 in Palm Beach County

Palm Beach County coronavirus map
Posted at 12:03 PM, May 27, 2020
and last updated 2020-05-28 10:54:04-04

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Coronavirus deaths in Florida climbed by 60 to 2,319, including Palm Beach County rising by 5 to 320, as numbers spiked after lower increases during the three-day holiday weekend, the Florida Department of Health announced Wednesday morning.

The county's deaths had remained at 315 since Saturday, when 4 fatalities were reported.

The state reported 7 additional deaths Tuesday after 15 Monday and 4 Sunday. One week ago, the rise was 44 in the state and 7 in the county.

The state record is 83 on Tuesday, April 28. The county's most was 17 on that date as well as that number last Thursday.

Over seven days, the state deaths increased by 223 for 10.6 percent and by 29 for 10.0 percent in Palm Beach County.

New cases statewide dropped to 379 from 508 to a total of 52,634. Several testing locations' sites were curtailed because of bad weather.

In Palm Beach County, cases climbed by 26 compared with 74 Tuesday. The Treasure Coast area reported 22 new cases, compared with 39 the day before.

No deaths were reported in the Treasure Coast area with St. Lucie at 29, Martin and Indian River at 9. and Okeechobee none.

Miami-Dade County has the most deaths in the state, jumping by 22 to 655. Broward County increased by 5 to 305, which remains 15 behind Palm Beach County. Lee is in fourth place with 99, an increase of 6.

Thirty-two of the 60 additional deaths are linked to South Florida, which accounts for 1,327 deaths for 57.2 percent of the state total though the population comprises 30 percent.

The state positive test rate dropped from 5.7 to 5.6 percent with the rate more than 10 percent for several weeks. The most recent positive daily rate was 3.7 percent compared with 3.4 percent Tuesday.

In all, there were 10,351 additional tests reported Wednesday compared with 14,992 Tuesday. A total of 935,271 have been tested with 880,937 negative results and the remaining 1,700 inconclusive or not reported.

The mortality rate involving positive cases is 4.4 percent in the state compared with 5.8 percent in the United States and 6.2 percent worldwide, which neared 357,000 deaths and neared 5.8 million cases. Palm Beach County's rate was 5.9 percent, compared with Broward at 4.5 percent and Miami-Dade with 3.8 percent. With much fewer deaths, the mortality rate is 6.9 percent in St. Lucie, 7.6 percent in Indian River and 1.6 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 one in Escambia. Ninety-four percent of the fatalities are 55 and older and 64 percent 75 and older. 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 402 cases of infants to 4 years old and 851 5 to 14.

Palm Beach County's death count is higher than 16 states, including New Hampshire with 223. Oklahoma has 322. The daily report listed six deaths confirmed Wednesday, two men and four women ranging from 73 to 98.

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 1,059 cases, followed by Lake Worth Beach with 980, Boca Raton with 605, Boynton Beach with 578, Delray Beach with 476 and Belle Glade has 358. The most cases on the Treasure Coast are in Port St. Lucie with 275.

Palm Beach County has 5,455 cases out of 67,907 total tested, including 115 awaiting results, for 8.0 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 17,255 positive cases out of 167,973 tested for 10.3 percent, and Broward is second with 6,825 cases and 97,965 tested for 7.0 percentage.

In St. Lucie, it's 420 positive out of 9,9265 for 4.2 percent, Martin with 550 of 7,355 for 7.5 percent, Indian River with 119 out of 5,072 for 2.3 percent and Okeechobee with 67 out of 1,578 for 4.2 percent.

On Thursday, Indian River reported the youngest person testing positive, a 5-year-old boy. The other youngest in the counties: an infant in Martin, a 3-year-old in St. Lucie and a 6-year-old in Okeechobee.

A total of 9,639 people in the state have been hospitalized at one time, which is 157 more than the day before. That means it is a running total and includes people who have been released or died. The number is 1,088 in Palm Beach County, 92 in St. Lucie, 72 in Martin, 32 in Indian River and 7 in Okeechobee.

Florida, which is third-most populous state, is 11th in the nation for total deaths behind Maryland, which has reported 73 more deaths than Florida, including 59 Wednesday, according to Worldometers.info. Florida has 108 deaths per 1 million people compared with the U.S. average of 308 per million. New York, which represents 30 percent of the deaths in the nation, has 1,519 per million. Worldwide, the figure is 45.8 per million.

National data

The death toll has passed 100,000. Worldometer lists it at 102,107 with 1,535 additional deaths Wednesday after 774 Tuesday. Johns Hopkins reports 100,396.

Cases hit 1,745,803 with 20,546 additional ones. Last Wednesday, there were 1,403 additional deaths and 22,139 more cases.

The one week U.S. death increase is 7.6 percent with a gain of 7,171.

Five states posted triple-digit increases Wednesday. New York, the only state to report at least 100 deaths Tuesday, added another 102 to rise to 29,553 in first place. A few weeks ago, nearly 800 deaths were reported in one day in the state.

Illinois announced a record 160 additional deaths to rise to 5,083 in sixth after announcing 39 Tuesday. Other triple-digit gainers were No. 2 New Jersey with 144, No. 5 Pennsylvania with 128 and No. 7 California with 103.

The remaining top 10 states: No. 3 Massachusetts with 74, No. 4 Michigan with 68, No. 8 Connecticut with 34, No. 9 Louisiana with 25.

Georgia is in 14th place with an increase of 38. No. 18 Washington, which was the original epicenter in the United States, is in 18th, reporting 17 more.

One week ago Wednesday in the United States, there were 94,936 deaths, two weeks ago there were 85,540, three weeks ago 74,799, four weeks ago 61,655, five weeks ago 47,894, six weeks ago 32,712, seven weeks ago 17,691, eight weeks ago 6,394, nine weeks ago 1,260, 10 weeks ago 171, 11 weeks ago 38, 12 weeks ago 11, 13 weeks ago none.

Worldwide

The U.S. represented 28.6 percent of the 4,054 additional deaths and 28.6 percent of the world total Wednesday though its population is only 4.3 percent of the global total.

The one week world death increase is 8.2 percent with a gain of 26,998.

Brazil's deaths and cases continue to surge. On Wednesday, the South American nation reported 1,148 after 1,027 Tuesday, the most in the nation, in sixth place. Its record was 1,188 on Thursday. In 14 days, Brazil has nearly doubled from 13,158 to 25,697. One week ago, the toll was 18,894. Brazil reported 22,301 cases for a total of 414,661 in second place behind the United States.

The six European nations in the top 10 – United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, France, Germany -- reported a total of new 661 deaths, compared with 682 Tuesday.

Two-thirds of those latest deaths were reported by United Kingdom -- 412 -- after 134 Tuesday.
The United Kingdom, which is second behind the United States, has a total of 37,460. The record was 1,172 on April 21.

Italy, which at one time was the epicenter of the world, is in third place at 33,072, gaining 117 after 78 Tuesday. On Sunday there were 59 – the lowest since 36 on March 7. The high of 919 was on March 27 at 32,007.

France reported 66 deaths after 98 the day before for fourth.

Spain, which has been adjusting its totals because of duplicates, added just 1 just more Wednesday after 280 Tuesday for a 27,118 total.

Mexico reported 468 more deaths late Wednesday after a record 501 Tuesday for ninth at 8,134.

Nations in the top 10 reporting less than 100 deaths are No. 7 Belgium with 30, No. 8 Germany with 35, No. 10 Iran with 56. Canada added 126 deaths for 11th place. No. 13 China, the original epicenter, reported zero new deaths Thursday – the last one reported was April 26 -- and 2 cases and no new cases for the first time on Saturday.

Sweden, which has been doing "herd immunity," reported 95 more deaths in 16th place with 4,220 as well as 648 new cases. Neighboring Norway reported zero deaths for the sixth day in a row to stay at 235 as well as 18 more cases.

Russia continues to surge in cases with 8,338 more for a total of 370,680 in third place. Russia reported a 161 more deaths to rise to 3,968 in 18th. Peru passed Russia with 195 more fatalities.

RELATED: More coronavirus coverage