WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — State coronavirus cases skyrocketed by a record for the third day in a row, 4,049, and additional deaths declined to 40 from 43 the day before for a total of 3,144, including 4 in Palm Beach County, the Florida Department of Health announced Saturday.
Also, a 17-year-old boy from Pasco County, who was counted as a confirmed case Friday, is now the youngest person to die from the coronavirus, joining two women in the 15-24 age class from Palm Beach County (22) and Miami-Dade County (23). Eighteen people from 25 to 34 also have died from the virus.
The cases record surpassed by 227 the previous mark of 3,822 Friday after a 3,207 record Thursday. The rise was 2,610 Wednesday and a previous record 2,783 Tuesday. The increase was second in the nation behind California's 4,348.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said Saturday that a confirmed case is much different now than it was in March, when the state first began testing for COVID-19. He said the tests readily available now means more people are testing positive but not displaying symptoms.
He also said there is a dramatic decline in the median age to 46 overall now. In addition, the positive rate has risen to 6.0 percent for all tests compared with 5.3 in the past week. The overall positive rate was 14.3 percent of tests reported Saturday.
"We're seeing a major shift in this direction with this large 20-30s-year-old population, mostly asymptomatic, but we're also seeing that not only are they testing positive because they're testing more, they're also testing positive at a higher rate increasingly over the last week," DeSantis said.
Essentially, DeSantis said, the cases are "shifting in a radical direction younger."
He also said anyone who goes to a hospital for something other than the coronavirus gets tested for COVID-19.
Testing has ramped up, including massive sites throughout Florida as well a nursing homes, jails and farm workers, and the state has eased restrictions.
For seven of the eight days, more than 2,000 cases have been reported, with the only exception 1,758 on Sunday. Last Saturday the increase was 2,582, a record at the time.
In one week, cases statewide have climbed by 20,245 for a 27.7 percent gain.
Cases have climbed to 93,797 since the first two were announced on March `1.
Residents' cases have risen by at least 1,000 for two weeks in a row with an increase of 4,047 Saturday and 9,169 total. Including nonresidents, the death toll rose to 3,237 Saturday, a statistic the state doesn't list on its dashboard or daily report.
South Florida had 1,622 new cases, which is 40.1 percent, including 390 in Palm Beach County, 704 in Miami-Dade and 389 in Broward. In the Treasure Coast area there, there were 239 more cases – 52 in Indian River, 38 in St. Lucie, 39 in Martin and 10 in Okeechobee. Thursday's increase was 227.
Palm Beach County's increase is one less than the record set Sunday of 391, for a total of 10,506, third behind Broward. Miami-Dade is in first place with 10,837 cases. Broward is at 10,837.
The number of tests reported were 28,404 compared with 20,808 the day before. So there were more tests and more positive results from the day before.
Total tests reached 1,562,280 with 1,467,475 negative results.
The mortality rate involving positive cases is 3.4 percent in the state compared with 5.2 percent in the United States and 5.2 percent worldwide, which passed 466,000 deaths and passed 8.9 million cases early Saturday night. Palm Beach County's rate was 4.5 percent, compared with Broward at 3.5 percent and Miami-Dade with 3.5 percent. With much fewer deaths, the mortality rate is 3.5 percent in St. Lucie, 3.8 percent in Indian River and 1.4 percent in Martin.
Palm Beach County, which gained `9 deaths last Saturday, has been second in the state for deaths behind Miami-Dade.
Palm Beach County has risen by 1,674 cases in one week for a 19.8 percent gain.
Over seven days, Martin County climbed by 404 cases for 38.6 percent, St. Lucie County rose by 339 for 40.8 percent, Indian River County by 120 for 60.9 percent and Okeechobee County by 46 for 46.3 percent.
Deaths rose by 267 in the state over seven days for 9.3 percent and in Palm Beach County it was 43 for 10.1 percent. The U.S. figures are 3.8 percent with the world at 7.7 percent.
On Thursday and Friday, the state deaths tolls each rose 43, compared with 25 Wednesday, 55 Tuesday, 7 Monday and 6 Sunday. Traditionally statistics are lower from weekend data. Last Saturday, the increase was 28.
In the Treasure Coast, the counties each rose by 1 -- St. Lucie to 41 with the death of an 86-year-old woman, Martin to 20 with a 50-year-old man's death and Indian River to 14 with a 42-year-old man. Okeechobee still has none.
The state record for increase is 83 on Tuesday, April 28. Twice, the increase was 72 – once in April and once last month. In Palm Beach County the record is 17 twice.
Miami-Dade County has the most deaths in the state, rising by 10 to 874. Broward increased by 3 to 370. In fourth place is Lee County with 143, a rise of 4.
With 20 of the 40 additional deaths, South Florida accounts for 1,787 deaths for 56.8 percent of the state total though the population comprises 30 percent.
The oldest are two 104-year-old women, including one from Sarasota on Saturday and the previous from Hillsborough. A total of 1,094 people 85 and older have died in the state from the virus, 28 additional ones Saturday.
Ninety-five percent of the fatalities are 55 and older and 65 percent 75 and older in data. A smaller percentage of older people have tested positive – 33 percent age 55 and older -- compared with 40 percent two weeks ago -- and 1`0 percent 75 and older.
At the other end of the age spectrum, there are 1,212 cases of infants to 4 years old, an increase of 69 in one day, and 5 1 were hospitalized. From ages 5-14, there are 2,590, up 298 with 46 in the hospital at one time.
The 4 deaths confirmed in Palm Beach County on Saturday include 2 men and 2 women, ranging from 52 to 97.
Palm Beach County's death count is higher than 18 states, including Delaware with 434.
West Palm Beach is in first place among Palm Beach County cities with 2,358, an increase of 100. Lake Worth, which includes the city and county portion, rose from 2,146 to 2,237 followed by Boca Raton at 965, up from 937, Boynton Beach at 978, also from 937, Delray Beach at 715 from 686. Port St. Lucie leads the Treasure Coast with 758, an increase of 20, followed with Stuart with 655 vs. 629.
In Indian River, Fellsmere, which has a population of 5,754, increased by 22 to 78 compared to only 3 on May 31.
The state doesn't list total deaths by city.
Palm Beach County has 10,506 cases out of 119,380 total tested for 8.8 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 25,080 positive cases out of 254,390 tested for 9.9 percent, and Broward is second with 10,837 cases and 160l,196 tested for 6.8 percentage.
In Martin County, it's 1,460 of 14,160 for 10.3 percent -- above the target range. In St. Lucie, it's 1,169 positive out of 19,112 for 6.1 percent, Indian River with 369 out of 10,143 for 3.6 percent and Okeechobee with 240 out of 2,776 for 8.6 percent.
An infant has tested positive in every South Florida county.
A total of 12,939 people in the state have been hospitalized at one time, which is 165 more than the day before and a rise from 11,874 last Saturday. That means it is a running total and includes people who have been released or died.
Including nonresidents in Pam Beach County, the number is 1,573 in Palm Beach County, an increase of 49 compared with 30 the day before, followed by 153 total in St. Lucie, which is an increase of 2; Martin with 144, which is an increase of 6; Indian River with 49, with no increase, and 23 in Okeechobee, which is 2 more.
DeSantis said there is sufficient hospital bed capacity in the state, including intensive care units. In addition, hospital can turn regular beds into ones for intensive car.
More than half of the deaths, 1,653, are residents and staff of long-term care, including 199 in Palm Beach County. The rise was 39 in the state in one day and 2 in Palm Beach County.
Florida, which is third-most-populous state, is ninth place, 35 ahead of Louisiana, which reported 9 deaths Saturday, according to Worldometers.info.
Florida has 147 deaths per 1 million people compared with the U.S. average of 368 per million. New York, which represents 26 percent of the deaths in the nation, has 1,602 per million. Worldwide, the figure is 59.8 per million.
National data
Worldometers lists the death toll at 121,980 with 573 fatalities Saturday and 11 days in a row of deaths under 1,000, including 719 Friday. Johns Hopkins reports 119,714 deaths.
Cases hit 2,330,578 with 33,388 additional ones Saturday. Last Saturday, there were 702 additional deaths and 25,459 more cases.
The one week U.S. death increase had a gain of 4,552.
California reported the most deaths, 67, in seventh place, followed by No. 4 Illinois with 45 and then Florida.
New York announced 15 additional deaths -- the lowest since the pandemic and below Friday's 67 for a total of 31,174. New York reported a record 799 in one day in April.
Also in the top 10: No. 3 Massachusetts with 28, No. 5 Pennsylvania with 21, No. 6 Michigan with 20, No. 8 Connecticut with 13 and No. 10 Maryland with 22.
No. 12 Georgia added 6 and Washington, which was the original epicenter in the United States, is in 21th place with an increase of 10 Saturday and was passed by North Carolina, which added 19 deaths.
One week ago Saturday in the United States, were 117,527, two weeks ago there were 112,096, three weeks ago there were 105,793, four weeks ago 98,904, five weeks ago 90,324, six weeks ago 80,232, seven weeks ago 67,616, eight weeks ago 54,396, nine weeks ago 39,429, 10 weeks ago 24,121, 11 weeks ago 10,406, 12 weeks ago 2,758, 13 weeks ago 474, 12 weeks ago 58, 15 weeks ago 19, 16 weeks ago 1.
Worldwide
The U.S. represented 12.9 percent of the 4,428 additional deaths – a percentage that has been declining – and 26.1 percent of the world total though its population is only 4.3 percent of the global total. The one week world death increase was 33,200. The death toll Friday was 5,078.
There were 156,923 new cases, less than the record 181,055 the day before.
Brazil, which is second behind the United States for deaths, reported 968 deaths after 1,221 deaths Friday. The record is 1,492 last week. The total is 50,058 compared with 35,957 two weeks ago. Brazil added 32,627 cases after a record 55,209 Friday. The South American nation has a total of 1,070,139 -- almost half as many as No. 1 U.S.
Mexico reported 387 more deaths late Saturday compared with 647 Friday as well as 5,030 cases. The nation's deaths have risen from 13,511 to 20,781 in two weeks into seventh place.
India reported 307 deaths -- 59 less than Thursday to rise to 13,277 in eighth place, compared with about half as many two weeks ago, 6,649. The Asian nation also reported a record 15,915 cases.
Five European nations are in the top 10.
The United Kingdom's deaths decreased from 173 to 128 deaths for third place with 42,589 – behind the United States and Brazil. The high was 1,172.
Fourth-place Italy, which at one time was the world's epicenter and reached 919 in one day, reported 49 after 47 Friday, among the lowest since March. No. 4 Spain added 7 deaths after not reporting any since April 2.
No. 5 France climbed by 16 Saturday, two more than Friday and a high of 1,494. The lowest was 13 on June 7.
Gaining 1 were No. 9 Belgium and No. 11 Germany, which was displaced from the top 10 earlier in the week by Iran, which reported 115 deaths.
No. 13 Russia had 161 additional deaths and 8,002 cases and a total of 576,952behind the United States and Brazil.
Sweden, which has been doing "herd immunity," didn't report any data Friday and Saturday after 12 deaths and 1,481 cases Thursday. Neighboring Norway reported no deaths to remain at 244 as well as 16 more cases.
China, the original epicenter of the world but now in 18th place, hasn’t reported a death since April 26 and added 27 cases Saturday. The 57 cases Sunday were the highest since 89 on April 13.