WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Florida's newly reported coronavirus deaths declined dramatically to 9, including a fatality in Indian River County, as cases rose by 2,521, more than a 1,000 less than the day before though positivity rates slightly rose, the Florida Health Department announced Sunday.
Weekend data are traditionally lower over the weekend, as 8 deaths were reported last Sunday, which was the lowest since 7 on June 15, and 34 on Monday. Deaths in the state rose by 63 on Saturday, 139 on Friday, 147 on Thursday, 152 on Wednesday and 145 on Tuesday.
The state's first-time positivity rate increased from 4.41 to 4.64 percent after a two-week low of 3.85 six days ago with every day over 14 days under 6 percent. In Palm Beach County, the rate rose to 4.71 percent from 4.08, a two-week low of 2.96 six days ago and a two-week high was 5.76 Sept. 8. The county's rate has been under 4 percent 6 times over 14 days.
The state's total daily positivity rate for all tests rose to 6.23 percent on 60,205 tests from 5.70 on 86,403, the highest in 14 days. The two-week low was 5.16 percent six days ago and the high was 8.13 percent on Sept. 8. The record test total was 142,964 July 11.
Since the first two deaths were announced on March 6, the death toll has climbed to 13,296 among residents, with an average of 67 per day, and 13,459 including 163 nonresidents, didn't change.
On Sept. 9, the death toll passed 12,000 to 12,115 and eight days later passed 13,000 on Thursday,
It took 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. Less than two months ago, July 20, there were 5,075 deaths.
Palm Beach County remained at 1,277, third highest in the state behind Miami-Dade and Broward, after 5 were reported Saturday. On the Treasure Coast, Indian River rose to 110 with the death of a 63-year-old woman as St. Lucie stayed at 263 and Martin at 132. Okeechobee is at 23 with its first two deaths on July 25.
Broward increased by 1 and Miami-Dade none.
In South Florida, there were 2 of the 9 deaths for a total of 6,180 at 46.5 percent though the population only comprises 30 percent.
The last time deaths hit 200 was one week ago Thursday with 211 after 200 the previous day. Before that, the last 200-plus day was Aug. 18. The state record was 276 on Aug. 11.
Cases in Florida are much lower than three months ago.
On Saturday cases rose by 3,573 after Friday's 3,204, Thursday's 3,255, Wednesday's 2,355, Tuesday's 3,116 and 1,736 on Monday, which was the lowest since 1,371 on June 10. Then, on June 15 they hit 1,758.
Since then cases have increased less than 2,000 four times – 1,885 on Aug. 31, 1,838 Monday, Sept. 7 and 1,823 Tuesday, Sept. 8.
The last time cases were above 4,000 was 4,684 on Aug. 22.
Palm Beach County's daily cases increased by 173 after 250 the day before and 100 two weeks ago.
Florida's new hospitalizations rose by 79 compared with 140 the day before. The state reported Sunday there are currently 2,285 hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19, which is 19 more than the day before.
Deaths
Florida is in fifth place in the United States. On June 16, Florida was in 11th place in the nation.
Texas is in fourth place with the addition of 45 deaths after a state-record 324 on Aug. 11, for a total of 14,893. California reported a U.S.-high 75 new deaths and is in third place overall with 14,987, just 94 ahead of Texas.
State and county increases represent fatalities received by the state Saturday 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: 105 on Aug. 21.
In a state report Sunday, 12 deaths were added from the last day's report and 3 removed after determining they weren't related to COVID-19.
Deaths rose by 688 in the state over seven days (a daily average of 98) for 5.5 percent, a figure tally that had been more than 1,200 deaths recently. Two months ago the one-week figure was in the mid 200s. Palm Beach County increased by 81 for 6.8 percent. The U.S. figure is 2.8 percent with the world at 3.9 percent.
Miami-Dade remained at 3,055, which is 175 more in one week. Broward increased to 1,320 with a rise of 40 in one week. St. Lucie has risen by 7 deaths in one week compared with Martin by 5, Indian River by 6 and Okeechobee by 2.
Palm Beach County's death count is higher than 23 states, including Iowa with 1,265 after adding 1.
Pinellas remained at 721 deaths in fourth place and Hillsborough stayed at 604 in fifth place. Polk is still at 507 in sixth and Lee decreased by 1 to 458.
Cases
Since the first two cases were announced on March 1, Florida's total has surged to 3.2 percent of the state's 21.48 million population with 683,754, third in the nation when the state was surpassed by Texas on Wednesday. The average since March is 3,368 per day.
In one week, cases have risen by 19,760, which average 2,823 per day, at 3.0 percent.
Cases passed 600,000 Aug. 23 and 500,000 on Aug. 5.
California has the most cases in the U.S. at 778,400 with the addition of a U.S.-high 4,266. Texas had 2,241 for second overall with 688,534. New York, which was the leader during much of the pandemic, is in fourth at 449,90 with 862 more.
Florida's daily case increases have been below 10,000 since July 26 when they climbed by 12,199. Early in the pandemic, cases were under 1,000 with the last one of three digits 966 on June 8.
The cases record was 15,300 was July 5 – the highest daily figure ever in the United States.
In Palm Beach County, new cases have been much lower since the record 1,171 July 5. The total now is 45,329, including residents and nonresidents.
Miami-Dade's cases were 365 compared with 536 and Broward's increase was 183 vs. 233. In the Treasure Coast area, the rise over one day was 17 in Martin, 21 in St. Lucie, 15 in Indian River, 10 in Okeechobee.
Testing
Florida's total number of people tested is 5,102,203, fourth in the nation, behind No. 1 New York, No. 2 California and No. 3 Texas. That Florida figure is 23.8 percent of Florida's population.
For the first time, more than 1 million tests were reported in the U.S, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
The overall Florida positive rate decreased to 13.40 percent from 13.42 the day before.
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 has been less than 5 percent for 10 days in a row, most recently 4.60 one day after 4.0, a two-week low of 3.59 two days ago and a two-week high 6.27 on Sept. 8. The rate hit 26.4 on July 8. Broward's rate has been less than 4 percent for two weeks, including most recently 3.71 one day after 2.88, a two-week low of 2.34 six days ago and a high of 3.81 five days ago.
Elsewhere, St. Lucie's rate increased to 3.53 percent from 2.93 and a two-week high of 7.23 five days ago with two-week low of 2.40 seven days ago. Martin's rate dropped to 5.37 percent from a two-week high of 9.80 and a two-week low of 1.59 four days ago. Indian River's rate was 3.71 percent after 3.77, a two-week high of 4.59 percent five days ago and a two-week low of 2.09 on Sept. 11, which was among 3 days near 2 percent and below. Okeechobee's rate was 10.7 percent on 106 negative tests after 15.94 percent on 174 negative tests, a two-week high of 24.14 on 44 tests four days ago, a low of 2.86 on 34 negative tests on Sept. 6.
Palm Beach County has 45,329 cases out of 355,535 total tested for 12.76 percent overall, not including those awaiting tests and inconclusive.
Miami-Dade leads with 166,881 positive cases out of 887,458 tested for 13.8 percent, and Broward is second with 75,682 cases and 550,271 tested for 13.75 percentage.
In Martin County, it's 4,739 of 34,202 for 13.86 percent. In St. Lucie, it's 7,808 out of 58,958 for 13.24 percent, Indian River with 3,087 of 34,443 for 8.96 percent and Okeechobee 1,453 of 10,753 for 13.51 percent.
Mortality rate
The mortality rate compares positive cases against deaths.
The state's rate increased to 2.0 percent for all deaths and cases, including nonresidents, compared with 2.9 percent in the United States and 3.1 percent worldwide, which neared 965,000 deaths and passed 31.2 million cases Sunday, according to Worldometers.info.
Palm Beach County's rate was 2.8 percent, compared with Broward at 1.8 percent and Miami-Dade with 1.8 percent. With much fewer deaths, the mortality rate is 3.4 percent in St. Lucie, 2.8 percent in Martin, 3.6 percent in Indian River and 1.6 percent in Okeechobee.
Florida has 619 deaths per 1 million people compared with the U.S. average of 617 per million. New York, which represents 16.6 percent of the deaths in the nation, has 1,705 per million. Worldwide, the figure is 123.8 per million.
Age breakdown
The median age for all deaths in Florida is 79.
Four deaths are among youths 14 and under: a 6-year-old from Hillsborough, a 9-year-year old from Putnam and two 11-year-olds, a boy in Miami-Dade and a girl in Broward. This class did not change.
Four other juveniles are among the 31 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 have any additions.
Eighty-nine people from 25 to 34 also have died from the virus, which rose by 1.
A total of 4,301 people 85 and older have died in the state from the virus, an increase of 2 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 11,561 cases of infants to 4 years old, an increase of 42, and 271 were hospitalized, with an increase of 2. From ages 5-14, there are 28,417, an increase of 98 with 244 in the hospital at one time, with 1 more.
From the infant to 54 age group, there are 486,686 of the 675,691 residents' cases. In that group, 908 have died, with an increase of 1, for a 0.19 death percentage. From infant to 64, there are 572,363 cases. A total of 2,347 have died, an increase of 10, for a 0.41 percentage.
Cities
West Palm Beach is in first place among Palm Beach County cities with 11,071, with an increase of 105. Lake Worth, which includes the city and county portion, rose by 60 to 7,753 followed by Boca Raton at 6,500 up from 6,410, Boynton Beach at 4,017 from 3,975 and Delray Beach at 3,087 vs. 3,058. A total of 1,036 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 4,601, an increase of 3, followed by Fort Pierce at 2,757, up 9, and Stuart with 2,213, which was a decrease of 1.
In Indian River County, Fellsmere, which has a population of 5,754, increased by 5 to 409 compared with only 3 on May 31.
Hospitalizations
A total of 42,453 people in the state have been hospitalized, a rise from 41,297 seven days ago. That means it is a running total and includes people who have been released or died.
The number is 3,552 in Palm Beach County, with an increase of 5 compared with 18 the day before; 385 in Martin, which went up by 1; 639 in St. Lucie with an increase of 2, Indian River remained at 290 and Okeechobee went from 161 to 163.
Long-term care
Forty-one percent of the deaths, 5,447 are residents and staff of long-term care, including 554 in Palm Beach County, which is second most in the state behind 775 in Miami-Dade. The state increase was 5 and Palm Beach County didn't change.
National
Since the first death was reported six months ago on Feb. 29, the toll has risen to 199,474, a gain of 215, according to Johns Hopkins. That is the lowest since 189 on March 23. Worldometers reported a gain of 294 to 204,118.
Cases reached 6,799,141 with an increase of 34,171. They have exceeded 70,000 seven times, including a record 78,446 on July 24 and the last time was July 31.
Last Sunday in the U.S., there were 378 more deaths and 41,471 cases.
The one week U.S. death increase was 5,403 at 2.8 percent.
New York has the most deaths in the nation at 33,087 with an increase of 6 reported Sunday, after a high of 799 in April.
Among other states in the top 10 for deaths: No. 3 New Jersey 2, No. 6 Massachusetts 15, No. 7 Illinois 14, No. 8 Pennsylvania 21, No. 9 Michigan no data, No. 10 Georgia 3.
Also, No. 11 Arizona reported 9 deaths, as well as an additional 467 cases. No. 23 Washington, the original epicenter in the United States, reported no deaths for the second day in a row.
Worldwide
The U.S. represented 7.6 percent of the 3,891 additional deaths Sunday and 21.2 percent of the world total though its population is only 4.3 percent of the global total. The one week world death increase was 36,597 at 3.9 percent.
Last Sunday's death increase was 3,961.
Cases increased by 243,019 after a record 315,101 Friday, according to Worldometers.info.
Brazil, which is second behind the United States for deaths, reported 330 deaths to rise to 136,895. Brazil's record is 1,554 on July 29. The nation added 16,282 cases at 4,544,629 in third place.
India reported 92,605 cases after a world-record 97,894 three days before to rise to 5,400,619, which is second in world behind U.S. India also recorded a world-high 1,133 deaths, four days after a national-record 1,299, to rise to 86,752 and in third place.
Mexico announced 255 more deaths late Sunday compared with a high of 1,092 on June 4 for a total of 73,493 in fourth place.
Four European nations are in the top 10 as cases are surging on the continent. The United Kingdom reported 18 additional deaths for 41,777 in fifth place with the record daily high 1,172, as well as 3,899 cases, after successive days of 4,322 and 4,222 cases, which was the highest since 5,086 on May 7. No. 6 Italy, which at one time was the world's epicenter and reached 919 in one day, reported 15 deaths. No. 8 France announced 11 deaths, as well as 10,569 cases one day after record 13,498. No. 9 Spain reported no data.
No. 7 Peru had 86 deaths Saturday and was 84 ahead of France. No. 10 Iran reported 183 deaths Sunday.
Russia is in fourth place in the world in cases with 1,103,399, including an additional 6,148. The nation gained 79 deaths and is in 12th.
No. 20 Canada reported 6 deaths for a total of 9,217 and 875 cases.
Sweden, which has been doing "herd immunity" with no lockdown, reported no data and is at 5,865. Neighboring Norway reported no deaths for the second day in a row to remain 267, as well as 39 more cases.
No. 30 China, the original epicenter of the world, hasn’t reported a death since April 26, and added 12 cases Monday.