WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Palm Beach County matched its record for most reported new coronavirus deaths in one day and the largest increase in the state, 17, to rise to 308 as the statewide toll climbed by 48 to 2,144 and cases spiked, the Florida Department of Health announced Thursday morning.
On Wednesday, the state reported 44 new deaths and Palm Beach County rose by 9. Last Thursday, the increases were 48 in the state and 9 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 shot up dramatically from 527 to 1,204. In Palm Beach County, they climbed by 192, compared with 77 Wednesday and 41 Tuesday. Gov. Ron DeSantis posted on Twitter a “big dump of tests results” were reported to the health department.
The Treasure Coast reported 70 new cases, compared with 26 the day before. These increases were 53 in Martin, 13 in St. Lucie, and 2 each in Indian River and Okeechoee counties.
The Treasure Coast area reported no additional deaths Thursday. St. Lucie is at 28, Indian River at 9, Martin at 8 and Okechobee none.
Miami-Dade County has the most deaths in the state, increasing by 13 to 602 in one day. Broward County rose by 1 to 286, which is 22 behind Palm Beach County. Earlier this week, Broward was ahead of Palm Beach County. Tied for fourth with 88 are Lee, which reported not deaths, and Manatee, which gained 4.
Thirty-one of the 44 additional deaths are linked to South Florida, which accounts for 1,241 deaths for 57.97 percent of the state total though the population comprises 30 percent.
The state positive test rate dropped one-tenth of a percentage point to 6.0 with the rate more than 10 percent for several weeks. The most recent positive daily rate was 2.7 percent compared with 1.0 percent Wednesday.
In all, there were 42,915 additional tests reported Thursday compared with 38,452 Wednesday. A total of 815,574 have been tested with 765,254 negative results and the remaining 1,655 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 passed 334,000 deaths and neared 5.2 million cases Wednesday. 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 336 cases of infants to 4 years old and 713 among the 48,615 testing positive.
Palm Beach County's death count is higher than 17 states, including Oklahoma with 304. Sixteen of the 17 deaths were verified Thursday, including eight men and eight women, ranging from a 51-year-old man to a 101-year-old woman, which is the oldest one in the county. Also, two men, 98 and 99, were reported Thursday.
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 936 cases, followed by Lake Worth Beach with 852, Boca Raton with 586, Boynton Beach with 537, Delray Beach with 448 and Belle Glade has 317. The most cases on the Treasure Coast are in Port St. Lucie with 237.
In Martin County, Stuart's cases jumped to 198 from 177 Wednesday, 158 Tuesday and 97 one week ago, and Indiantown from 152 to 180 in one day.
Palm Beach County has 4,948 cases out of 59,948 total tested, including 109 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 135,964 positive cases out of 152,690 tested for 10.7 percent, and Broward is second with 6,514 cases and 87,362 tested for 7.5 percentage.
In St. Lucie, it's 349 positive out of 8,624 for 4.0 percent, Martin with 472 of 5,974 for 7.9 percent, Indian River with 110 out of 3,783 for 2.9 percent and Okeechobee with 51 out of 1,367 for 3.7 percent. Martin's percentage dropped from 10.8 to 8.8 Wednesday. In the county, testing has climbed dramatically from 3,658 two days ago -- 1,225 more Thursday and 1,091 more Wednesday.
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 8,946 people in the state have been hospitalized at one time, which is 165 more than the day before. That means it is a running total and includes people who have been released or died. The number is 1,015in Palm Beach County, 88 in St. Lucie, 66 in Martin, 29 in Indian River and 7 in Okeechobee.
Florida is in 11th in the nation for total deaths behind Maryland, according to Worldometers.info through Thursday night. Maryland has reported 14 more deaths than Florida, including 36 Thursday.
Florida has 100 deaths per 1 million people compared with the U.S. average of 291 per million. New York, which represents one-third of the deaths in the nation, has 1,484 per million. Worldwide, the figure is 42.9 per million.
National data
The death toll was96,354 with 1,418 additional deaths after 1,461 Wednesday. Cases hit 1,620,902 with 28,179 additional ones. Last Thursday, there were 1,753 additional deaths and 21,246 more cases.
Three states reported additional deaths in triple figures -- barely -- compared with four Wednesday.
No. 1 New York reported the most, 127, which is 41 less than Wednesday to move to 28,885. A few weeks ago, nearly 800 deaths were reported in one day in the state.
California reported 107 more after 87 Thursday to climb past Connecticut into seventh at 3,619. New Jersey added 105 deaths after 156 Wednesday for second place with 10,852.
In double digits were No. 3 Massachusetts with 82, No. 4 Michigan with 69, No. 5 Pennsylvania with 98, No. 6 Illinois with 82, No. 8 Connecticut with 53, No. 9 Louisiana with 21. Illinois had set records on successive days with 145 on Tuesday and 146 Wednesday.
Georgia is in 14th place with an increase of 78 after 22 Wednesday. No. 18 Washington, which was the original epicenter in the United States, is in 18th, reporting 38 more deaths to reach 1,074 as well as 204 more cases.
One week ago Thursday in the United States, there were 87,293 deaths, two weeks ago there were 76,928, three weeks ago 63,856, four weeks ago 50,234, five weeks ago 34,905, six weeks ago 19,802, seven weeks ago 7,756, eight weeks ago 1,614, nine weeks ago 239, 10 weeks ago 41, 11 weeks ago 12 and 12 weeks ago none.
Worldwide
The U.S. represented 29.7 percent of the 4,934 additional deaths and 28.8 percent of the world total Wednesday 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 set a record with 1,188 additional ones -- second in the nation -- two days after a record 1,130. In two weeks, Brazil has more than doubled from 9,188 to 20,082. One week ago, the toll was 13,993. The South American nation reported 17,564 cases after a record 21,472 Wednesday for a total of 310,921 in third place.
The United Kingdom, which is second behind the United States in total deaths at 36,042, reported 338 additional ones after 363 Wednesday. The record was 1,172 on April 21.
Italy, which at one time was the epicenter of the world, is in third place at 32,486, gaining 156, five less than Wednesday. On Tuesday, there were 97 -- the lowest since 97 on March 9. The high of 919 was on March 27 at 32,007.
Nations in the top 10 reporting additional deaths in double figures are No. 4 France with 83, No. 5 Spain with 52, No. 7 Belgium with 36, No. 8 Germany with 39, No. 9 Iran with 66. No. 10 Canada rose by 121.
Mexico, which usually reports most of its deaths late at night, climbed past the Netherlands in 11th place with 424 additional deaths, third in the world, in one day. No. 13 China, the original epicenter, reported zero new deaths Friday – the last one reported was April 26.
Sweden, which has been doing "herd immunity," reported 40 more deaths in 15th place with 3,871 as well as 649 cases. Neighboring Norway reported 1 more death at 235 as well as 28 more cases.
Russia continues to skyrocket in cases with 8,849 more for a total of 317,554, second behind the United States. Russia reported 127 more deaths to rise to 3,099 in 18th.
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