WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Florida's coronavirus first-time daily positivity rate surged in one day, 7.58 in the state, with 8.3 in Palm Beach County, as cases rose above 4,000 for the seventh time in eight days, 4,637, though deaths are stable with an increase of 56, the Florida Health Department announced Tuesday.
The state considers rates above 5 percent in the "danger" threshold.
The positivity rates also spiked last Tuesday. Data, including deaths, traditionally rise after weekend information.
With an information release Tuesday afternoon four hours after the normal time, Florida's first-time daily infection rate of tests reported by labs Monday rose more than 1 percentage point from 6.43 the day before. It was a two-week high and the fifth time in 14 days it was 6 percent or more with low of 3.66 Oct. 23.
Palm Beach County's first-time percentage was the highest since 8.81 on Aug. 10, not including a date dump when it was 8.68 two weeks ago. One week ago, the rate hit 8.29 percent. The percentage rate has been 5 percent or above for 10 days in a row and all but three days over two weeks. The low was 269 on Aug. 23. It was 1.92 on Oct. 11, which was the smallest since 1.5 percent on May 19.
The state's total daily positivity rate for all tests increased to a two-week high of 8.92 percent on 66,328 tests from 8.38 on 45,958 tests one day earlier. The two-week low was 4.64 Oct. 23. Only 20,987 tests were reported Sept. 27 and the record test total was 142,964 July 11.
Tuesday's cases were 339 more than Monday, and one week ago Tuesday it was 4,298. Sunday's increase was 4,865. On Saturday, infections had dropped to 2,331, the only time in the past seven days they were below 4,000 and the lowest since 2,144 on Oct. 2. Friday's figure was 5,592, which was the the most since 6,352 on Aug. 15, not including two days' worth of data on Oct. 11 and 7,569 for one day on Sept. 1, which were both because of infection dumps.
On Monday, Sept. 29, the 738 cases were fewest since June 2 when there were 617 additional infections. Then, they then increased to 3,266 on Tuesday, Sept. 30.
Although infections in Florida are trending upward like in most other states in the nation, new cases are exponentially lower than its U.S. daily high of 15,300 in July.
Palm Beach County's daily cases increased by 360 one day after 372. On Sept. 28, the rise was 27. Infections rose in Broward by 503 and Miami-Dade by 879.
Tuesday's death increase was 11 more than Monday's total and the same as one week ago. Sunday's 28 deaths were the lowest since 20 one Monday ago. One Sunday ago, they rose by 12, which was the least since 5 on Sept. 23.
The last time there was a triple-digit increase was 105 one week ago Wednesday, and they were last highest 141 on Thursday, Oct. 15. The record was 276 deaths on Tuesday, Aug. 11.
Palm Beach County's deaths increased by 4 to 1,599, which is second to Miami-Dade and ahead of Broward after a rise of 7 Monday.
Two Treasure Coast counties remained the same: St. Lucie at 336 and Indian River at 125 but Martin increased by 3 to 170. Okeechobee rose by 1 to 41 with its first two fatalities on July 25.
Broward increased by 1 and Miami-Dade by 6.
With a net increase of 15 deaths in South Florida of the 56 state total, which is 26.8 percent, there are 7,478, which is 44.3 percent of the state figure though the population only comprises 30 percent.
Since the first two deaths were announced on March 6, which is 242 days, the death toll has reached 16,890 for an average of 70 per day. Florida's total including nonresidents is 17,099, which remained at 209.
The number of deaths over one week is 329, an average of 47, compared with 400 the previous week.
Florida's total of 816,700 cases is nearly 9 percent of the total infections in the U.S., which passed 9 million Friday, though the state only comprises 6.5 percent of the population.
In one week cases have risen by 30,389 for an average of 4,341 at 3.9 percent. The previous week the increase was 25,992 with an average of 3,703. The average since the first case, which was 247 days ago, is 3,306 per day.
Cases passed 800,000 on Friday, 700,000 one month ago, Sept. 27, after going above 600,000 Aug. 23, 500,000 on Aug. 5, 400,000 on July 24, 300,000 on July 15, 200,000 on July 5, 100,000 on June 22.
State and county increases represent fatalities received by the state Monday 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: 67 on Oct. 7.
The state report Tuesday identified 65 deaths with 9 previously reported cases deleted as a fatality for a net increase of 56.
Florida's new hospitalizations rose by 230 compared with 81 the day before. The state reported Tuesday there are currently 2,485 hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19, which is 12 more than Monday.
Deaths
Since June 16, Florida has climbed seven spots from 11th place in the nation to fourth. And the state is 11th in deaths per million.
Texas is in second place with the addition of a U.S.-high 97 deaths Tuesday after a state-record 324 on Aug. 11, for a total of 18,194. California reported 14 and is in third place with 17,686. New Jersey, which had been second throughout the pandemic, is in fifth place with 16,371, adding 14 fatalities.
It took 12 days for Florida's death toll to go from the 15,000 milestone to 16,000, the same to surpass that figure Oct. 7, but nine days to surpass 14,000 and eight to go past 12,000. It was 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. More than three months ago, July 20, there were 5,075 deaths.
Deaths have had upward and lower trends since the pandemic in Florida. A few months ago they were averaging more than 1,200 a week with one-week figures earlier in the mid 200s.
Palm Beach County increased by 34 deaths over seven days for 2.2 percent. The U.S. figure is 2.6 percent with the world at 4.1 percent.
Miami-Dade rose to 3,675 with 51 more in seven days. Broward is at 1,532 with the increase of 12 in a week. St. Lucie has gone up by 5 deaths compared with Martin by 6, Indian River by none and Okeechobee by 3.
Palm Beach County's death count is higher than 20 states, including Kentucky's 1,503 with 11 reported Tuesday.
Pinellas increased by 3 to 828 in fourth place, Hillsbourgh remained at 822 in fifth, Polk by 8 to 633 in sixth, Orange stayed at 561 in seventh and Lee went up by 5 to 523 in eighth.
The state identified 10 deaths in Palm Beach County though the increase was 7 with 5 men (60, 80, 82, 92, 99) and 5 women (58, 75, 78, 82, 83). Okeechobee added three men (71, 87, 87) though the increase was 1. Martin reported an 87-year-old woman though the increase was 3.
Cases
Since the first two cases were announced eight months ago on March 1, Florida's total has surged to 3.8 percent of the state's 21.48 million population with 816,700, third in the nation and 10th in cases per million.
California has the most cases in the U.S. at 934,672 with 4,044 more Tuesday. Texas had a U.S.-high 7,215 and is second overall with 916,713. New York, which was the leader during much of the pandemic, is in fourth at 513,689 with an increase of 2,321.
Twelve states reported at least 2,500 cases. No. 5 Illinois reported 6,516, No. 11 Wisconsin a record 5,771, No. 12 Ohio a record 4,222, No. 22 Minnesota a record 3,476, No. 14 Michigan 3,437, No. 15 Missouri 3,321.
In Palm Beach County, new cases have been much lower since the record 1,171 July 5. The total now is 53,511 including residents and nonresidents.
Miami-Dade's cases were 879 compared with 948 the day before and Broward's increase was 503 vs. 495. In the Treasure Coast area, the rise over one day was Martin 18 vs. 12, St. Lucie 52 vs. 34, Indian River 24 vs. 29 and Okeechobee 6 vs. 19.
Testing
The state is no longer listing a running total of Floridians tested or total tests. Worldometers.info lists Florida with 10,182,460 total tests behind No. 1 California, No. 2 New York, No. 3 Texas and No. 4 Illinois.
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 increased to 6.48 percent from 6.2 , a two-week high of 5.88 Oct. 25 and a two-week low of 2.47 on Oct. 23. The rate hit 26.4 on July 8. Broward's rate was 6.70 percent after 5.73, a two-week high of 7.36 six days ago and a two-week low of 2.83 Oct. 23.
Elsewhere, St. Lucie's rate surged to 8.36 percent after 5.84 one day ago, a two-week high of 9.39 Oct. 20 and a low of 3.78 Oct. 25. Martin's rate was 5.06 percent after 6.15, a two-week low of 2.7 Oct. 25 and a two-week high of 6.93 six days ago. Indian River's rate was 7.12 percent after 6.41, a two-week high of 8.8 Oct. 24 and a low of 3.92 three days ago. Okeechobee's rate was a two-week high of 15.22 on 39 negative tests after zero percent on 32 negative tests.
Mortality rate
The mortality rate compares positive cases against deaths.
The state's rate was 2.1 percent for all deaths and cases, including nonresidents, compared with 2.5 percent in the United States and 2.5 percent worldwide, which neared 1,220,000 deaths and passed 47.8 million cases Tuesday, according to Worldometers.info.
Palm Beach County's rate is 3.0 percent compared with Broward at 1.8 percent and Miami-Dade with 2.0 percent. With much fewer deaths, the mortality rate is 3.6 percent in St. Lucie, 3.1 in Martin, 3.2 percent in Indian River and Okeechobee 2.3 percent, which is the highest ever.
Florida has 786 deaths per 1 million people compared with the U.S. average of 721 per million. New York, which represents 14.4 percent of the deaths in the nation, has 1,733 per million. Worldwide, the figure is 156.4 per million.
Age breakdown
Five deaths are among youths 14 and under, a 6-year-old from Hillsborough, a 9-year-year old from Putnam, two 11-year-olds, a boy in Miami-Dade and a girl in Broward, as well as a 12-year-girl from Duval.
Four other juveniles are among the 32 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 change.
Ninety-eight people from 25 to 34 also have died from the virus with no change.
A total of 5,408 people 85 and older have died in the state from the virus, an increase of 18 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 13,605 cases of infants to 4 years old, an increase of 74, and 326 were hospitalized, which went up by 3. From ages 5-14, there are 35,964, an increase of 275, with 304 in the hospital at one time, which went up by 3.
From the infant to 54 age group, there are 581,263 of the 805,924 residents' cases. In that group, 1,107 have died, with an increase of 4, for a 0.19 death percentage. From infant to 64, there are 685,960 cases. A total of 2,968 have died, with 10 more, for a 0.43 percentage.
Cities
West Palm Beach is in first place among Palm Beach County cities with 12,803 with an increase of 70. Lake Worth, which includes the city and county portion, increased by 49 to 8,686, followed by Boca Raton at 8,136 up from 8,072, Boynton Beach went to 4,714 from 4,682 and Delray Beach at 3,647 vs. 3,617. A total of 1631 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 5,472, an increase of 3, followed by Fort Pierce at 3,118, up 8, and Stuart with 2,513, which rose by 10.
In Indian River County, Fellsmere, which has a population of 5,754, increased by 3 to 439 compared with only 3 on May 31.
Hospitalizations
A total of 49,715 people in the state have been hospitalized, a rise from 48,512 seven days ago. That means it is a running total and includes people who have been released or died.
The number is 4,212 in Palm Beach County, with an increase of 24 compared with 6 the day before. Martin went up by 1 to 426, St. Lucie by 3 to 790, Indian River by 2 to 355 and Okeechobee stayed at 196.
Long-term care
Forty percent of the deaths, 6,810 are residents and staff of long-term care, including 725 in Palm Beach County, which is second most in the state behind 852 in Miami-Dade. The state increase was 24 and Palm Beach County went up by 2.
Nation
Since the first death was reported on Feb. 29, the national toll has risen to 232,538, a rise of 1,048, according to Johns Hopkins. Worldometers.info has tabulated 238,641deaths with an increase of 1,199
Cases rose to 9,377,579, a rise of 76,515 behind a record 99,321 four days earlier, according to Johns Hopkins. COVID Tracking Project lists the case increase as 86,507 behind a record 97,080 four days before. Worldometers.info has it at 94,463, behind a record 101,461 four days before.
Last Tuesday in the U.S., there were 986 more deaths and 73,32cases.
The one week U.S. death increase was 5,838 at 2.6 percent.
New York has the most deaths in the nation at 33,543 with Johns Hopkins reporting 4 more after a high of 799 in April. Hopkins lists confirmed and probable deaths, with the latter not a positive case.
Among other states in the top 10 for deaths: No. 6 Illinois 68, No. 7 Massachusetts 12, No. 8 Pennsylvania 33, No. 9 Georgia 32 and No. 10 Michigan 45.
Also, No. 11 Arizona reported 38 deaths, as well as an additional 1,679 cases. No. 20 Tennessee added 75, No. 15 North Carolina a record 67, and 27 Wisconsin 52. No. 25, the original epicenter in the United States, reported 24.
Worldwide
The U.S. represented 14.6 percent of 8,201 additional deaths, the most since a record 8,517 on April 17, and 19.6 percent of the world total though its population is only 4.3 percent of the global total.
The one week world death increase was 47,806 at 4.1 percent.
Last Tuesday's death increase was 7,049.
Cases increased by 484,509, four days after a record 573,616, the 500,000 milestone five days ago and 400,000 one week ago Friday, according to Worldometers.info.
Brazil has been trending down in deaths and cases. The nation, which is second behind the United States for deaths, reported 276 deaths to rise to 160,548. Brazil's record is 1,554 on July 29. The nation added 12,920 cases at 5,567,947 in third place.
India reported 38,310 new cases compared with a world-record 97,894 in September, for second-place behind the U.S., with 8,267,612. Also, India recorded 490 deaths, behind a national-record 1,299, to rise to 123,097 and in third place.
Mexico announced 493 more deaths late Tuesday compared with a high of 1,092 on June 4 for a total of 92,593 in fourth place.
In Europe, coronavirus is surging at record cases levels and deaths that are the highest since the spring with nations instituting lockdowns. The continent reported 3,802 deaths, 233,645 cases Tuesday, nearly half the total for both.
Four European nations are in the top 10. The United Kingdom reported 397 deaths, the most since 425 on May 27, as well as 20,018 cases one week after a record 26,688. No. 6 Italy, which at one time was the world's epicenter and reached 919 in one day, reported 353, the most since 370 on May 6, and 28,244 cases, three days after a record 31,758. No. 7 France announced 854 deaths, the most since the record 1,437 on April 15, as well as 36,330 cases, one day after a record 52,518. No. 8 Spain reported 238 deaths and 18,669 cases after a record 25,595 four days ago.
No. 9 Iran reported 442 deaths one day after a 440 deaths and a record 8,932 cases and No. 10 Peru added 38 deaths.
Russia is in fourth place in the world in cases with 1,673,686, including a record 18,648. The nation gained 355 deaths in 13th, which is 11 behind the record last week.
No. 22 Canada reported 71 deaths for a total of 10,279 and a record 4,672. Between May 26 and Aug. 30 cases were never more than 1,000.
Sweden, which has been doing "herd immunity" with no lockdown, reported 10 deaths and is at 5,969. Neighboring Norway reported zero deaths for the fourth day in a row to remain at 282, as well as 617 more cases.
No. 34 China, the original epicenter of the world, hasn’t reported a death since April 26, added 17 cases Thursday.
