WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — On the day the entire state entered Phase Two of business reopenings since the onset of coronavirus, the Florida Health Department released data Monday of new deaths, increased cases and positivity rates that were common three months ago until spikes.
Florida reported 34 additional coronavirus deaths, one day after a three-month low of 8, as cases' increase of 1,736 was the smallest gain since June and the daily first-time positivity rate dropped below 4 percent in the state and under 3 percent in Palm Beach County.
In June, the daily total infection rates commonly were 2-3 percent but then spiked into double digits including 20.71 percent on July 8.
The state's daily rate for all tests decreased to a two-week low 5.19 percent on 50,968 tests reported by the labs to the state Sunday compared with 5.56 on 62,316 tests the day before. The two-week high was 10.32 percent with a data dump by Quest Diagnostics last week.
The first-time positivity rate dropped from 4.24 percent to 3.91, one of 8 days over two weeks under 5 percent, compared with a two-week high 6.19 on Sept. 2. In Palm Beach County, the rate to 2.99 from 3.23 percent, one of 9 days over 14 days under 4 percent. The county's two-week high was 5.78 on Tuesday.
Palm Beach County reported 3 new deaths – two men (66, 75) and a 91-year-old woman – for a total of 1,199, third highest in the state behind Miami-Dade and Broward, after none were reported Sunday. On the Treasure Coast, St. Lucie remained at 256, Martin at 127 and Indian River at 196. Okeechobee still has 21 with its first two deaths on July 25.
Broward increased by 4, including the death of a 22-year-old woman, and Miami-Dade by 14 after a decrease of 2 on Sunday. Miami-Dade and Broward joined the rest of the state to ease restrictions Monday. Palm Beach County entered Phase Two on Tuesday.
In South Florida, there were 21 of the 34 deaths, 61.8 percent for a total of 5,887 at 46.6 percent though the population only comprises 30 percent.
Deaths in Florida have been less than three digits for three days in a row. On Saturday they rose by 98 after 176 Friday, 211 Thursday and 200 Wednesday. The previous 200-plus day was Aug. 18. The state record was 276 on Aug. 11.
Deaths traditionally are lower after weekend data.
On Tuesday, one day after Labor Day, the death increase was 44 after trending lower for four days: 22 Monday, 38 last Sunday, 61 last Saturday, 100 last Friday and 149 last Thursday.
On Monday, June 15, 7 deaths were reported with a total death toll of 2,423. Since then fatalities have skyrocketed to 12,642 with an average of 112 over 91 days.
After the first two deaths were announced on March 6, the death toll has climbed to 12,800 including 158 nonresidents, which went up by 2.
Cases in Florida also have been trending down the past three months.
Monday's cases were 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 last Monday and 1,823 Tuesday.
Palm Beach County's daily cases increased by 114 after 152 the day before and 100 last week.
Florida's new hospitalizations rose by 377 compared with 194 the day before. The state reported Sunday there are currently 2,637 hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19, which is 8 less 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 21 deaths Monday after a state-record 324 on Aug. 11, for a total of 14,211. California reported a U.S.-high 56 new deaths and is in third place overall with 14,385, just 174 ahead of Texas.
It took 49 days for the death toll to reach the first 1,000 yet it was only 40 days to more than double.
Less than two months ago there, July 20, there were 5,075 deaths.
State and county increases represent fatalities received by the state Sunday 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: 112 on Aug. 15.
In a state report Monday, 36 deaths were added from the last day's report but 2 were removed after determining they weren't related to COVID-19.
Deaths rose by 771 in the state over seven days (a daily average of 110) for 6.5 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 rose by 31 for 2.7 percent. The U.S. figure is 2.8 percent with the world at 4.1 percent.
Miami-Dade rose to 2,894, which is 236 more in one week. Broward increased to 1,284 with a rise of 64 in one week. St. Lucie has risen by 10 deaths in one week compared with Martin by 7, Indian River by 2 and Okeechobee by 1.
Palm Beach County's death count is higher than 21 states, including Rhode Island's 1,075 with an additional 4 deaths.
Pinellas remained at 701 deaths in fourth place and Hillsborough decreased up by 1 to 585 in fifth place. Polk remained at 488 in sixth and Lee stayed at 448.
Cases
Since the first two cases were announced on March 1, Florida's total has surged to 3.1 percent of the state's 21.48 million population with 665,730 second in the nation. The average over six months is 3,379 per day.
In one week, cases have risen by 17,461, which average 2,494 per day, at 2.7 percent, a percentage that has been steadily decreasing.
Cases passed 600,000 Aug. 23 and 500,000 on Aug. 5.
California has the most cases in the U.S. at 757,778 with the addition of a U.S.-high 2,855. Texas had 2,595 and is third overall with 663,445, just 2,285 behind Florida. New York, which was the leader during much of the pandemic, is in fourth at 444,948 with 583 more. Tennessee reported 2,450 cases, the third-most in the nation and is 10th.
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 44,139, including residents and nonresidents.
Miami-Dade's cases were 213 compared with 296 and Broward's increase was 191 vs. 161. In the Treasure Coast area, the rise over one day was 9 in Martin, 28 in St. Lucie, 7 in Indian River, 2 in Okeechobee.
Testing
Florida's total number of people tested is 4,948,075, fourth in the nation, behind No. 1 New York, No. 2 California and No. 3 Texas. That Florida figure is 23.0 percent of Florida's population.
The overall positive rate dropped to 13.45 percent from 13.47 the day before.
The record test total was 142,964 July 11.
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 four days in a row, most recently a two-week low of 4.18 and a two-week high of 7.83, which doesn't include the Quest Diagnostics data dump, on Aug. 31. The rate hit 26.4 on July 8. Broward's rate was 2.58, after two days under 3 percent, a two-week low of 2.54 then 2.80, two weeks in a row under 5 percent with the high of 4.75 on Aug. 31, not including the data dump.
Elsewhere, St. Lucie's rate was 3.23 percent after a 14-day low of 2.39 percent and a high of 6.95 on Tuesday. Martin's rate was4.01 percent after a two-week low of 2.17 percent and a high of 9.68 on Tuesday. Indian River's rate 2.23 percent, which was one of 6 days near 2 percent, including a low of 1.65 on Sept. 5, one day after 3.18 percent and a two-week high of 4.18 last Monday. Okeechobee's rate was 4.08 percent on 47 tests after 10.23 percent on 79 tests, a two-week high of 13.04 on 100 tests two days ago, a low of 1.92 on 153 negative tests on Sept. 3.
Palm Beach County has 44,139 cases out of 345,094 total tested for 12.79 percent overall, not including those awaiting tests and inconclusive.
Miami-Dade leads with 164,299 positive cases out of 862,601 tested for 19.05 percent, and Broward is second with 74,525 cases and 536,562 tested for 13.89 percentage.
In Martin County, it's 4,567 of 32,732 for 13.95 percent. In St. Lucie, it's 7,572 out of 56,447 for 13.41 percent, Indian River with 2,990 of 33,201 for 9.01 percent and Okeechobee 1,335 of 10,393 for 12.85 percent.
Mortality rate
The mortality rate compares positive cases against deaths.
The state's rate is 1.9 percent for all deaths and cases, including nonresidents, compared with 3.0 percent in the United States and 3.2 percent worldwide, which passed 932,000 deaths and passed 29.4 million cases Monday, according to Worldometers.info.
Palm Beach County's rate was 2.7 percent, compared with Broward at 1.7 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 589 deaths per 1 million people compared with the U.S. average of 600 per million. New York, which represents 17.0 percent of the deaths in the nation, has 1,702 per million. Worldwide, the figure is 119.0 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 30 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 increased with the death of the 22-year-old Broward woman.
Eighty-three people from 25 to 34 also have died from the virus, which decreased by 1.
A total of 4,104 people 85 and older have died in the state from the virus, an increase of 9 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 11,249 cases of infants to 4 years old, an increase of 52, and 259 were hospitalized, with an increase of 1. From ages 5-14, there are 27,563, an increase of 143 with 235 in the hospital at one time, with 1 addition.
From the infant to 54 age group, 472,653 of the 658,203 residents' cases. In that group, 853 have died, with an increase of 2, for a 0.18 death percentage. From infant to 64, there are 556,215 cases. A total of 2,225 have died, an increase of 2, for a 0.40 percentage.
Cities
West Palm Beach is in first place among Palm Beach County cities with 10,907, with an increase of 30. Lake Worth, which includes the city and county portion, rose by 21 to 7,606, followed by Boca Raton at 6,212, up from 6,191, Boynton Beach at 3,906 from 3,893 and Delray Beach at 3,011 vs. 3,009. A total of 1,003 in the county not designated by a city.
Port St. Lucie leads the Treasure Coast with 4,441, an increase of 27 followed by Fort Pierce at 2,696, up 8, and Stuart with 2,131, which was an increase of 4.
In Indian River County, Fellsmere, which has a population of 5,754, increased by 1 to 399 compared with only 3 on May 31.
Hospitalizations
A total of 41,374 people in the state have been hospitalized, a rise from 40,083 seven days ago. That means it is a running total and includes people who have been released or died.
The number is 3,492 in Palm Beach County, with no change compared with none the day before; 384 in Martin, which rose by 1; 617 in St. Lucie with an increase of 3, Indian River remained at 279 and Okeechobee rose from 152 to 156.
Long-term care
Forty-one percent of the deaths, 5,197, are residents and staff of long-term care, including 520 in Palm Beach County, which is second most in the state behind 759 in Miami-Dade. The state increase was 56 and in Palm Beach County it went up by 1.
National
Since the first death was reported six months ago on Feb. 29, the toll has risen to 194,467, a gain of 396, according to Johns Hopkins. Worldometers reported a gain of 480 to 199,000.
Cases reached 6,553,001 with an increase of 34,428. They have exceeded 70,000 seven times, including a record 78,446 on July 24 and the last time was July 31.
Last Monday in the U.S., there were 267 more deaths and 24,257 cases.
The one week U.S. death increase was 5,267 at 2.8 percent.
New York has the most deaths in the nation at 33,030 with 4 reported Monday, after a high of 799 in April.
Among other states in the top 10 for deaths: No. 2 New Jersey 5, No. 6 Massachusetts 9, No. 7 Illinois 5, No. 8 Pennsylvania 23, No. 9 Michigan 10, No. 10 Georgia 20.
Also, No. 11 Arizona reported no deaths, as well as an additional 213 cases. No. 23 Washington, the original epicenter in the United States, reported 15.
Worldwide
The U.S. represented 11.0 percent of the 4,352 additional deaths Monday and 21.3 percent of the world total though its population is only 4.3 percent of the global total. The one week world death increase was 36,818 at 4.1 percent.
Last Monday's death increase was 3,848.
Cases increased by 240,976 after a record 310,692 Friday, according to Worldometers.info.
Brazil, which is second behind the United States for deaths, reported 454 deaths to rise to 132,117. Brazil's record is 1,554 on July 29. The nation added 19,089 cases at 4,349,544 in third place.
India reported 92,071 cases, two days after a record 97,570, to rise to 4,,846,427, which is second in world behind U.S. India also recorded 1,136 deaths, behind the record 1,209 three days ago, to rise to 79,722 and in third place.
Mexico announced 228 more deaths late Monday compared with a high of 1,092 on June 4 for a total of 671,716 in fourth place.
Four European nations are in the top 10. The United Kingdom reported 9 additional deaths for 41,637 in fifth place with the record daily high 1,172. No. 6 Italy, which at one time was the world's epicenter and reached 919 in one day, reported 14 deaths. No. 7 France announced 34 and No. 9 Spain 33.
No. 8 Peru gained 102 deaths and No. 10 Iran had 156.
Russia is in fourth place in the world in cases with 1,068,320 including an additional 5,509. The nation gained 67 deaths and is in 12th.
No. 19 Canada reported 8 deaths for a total of 9,179 and 1,351 cases.
Sweden, which has been doing "herd immunity," reported not data and has 5,846 total. Neighboring Norway reported no deaths for the third day in a row to remain at 265, as well as 122 more cases.
No. 28 China, the original epicenter of the world, hasn’t reported a death since April 26, and added `8 cases Tuesday.
Japan added 3 deaths, tying the lowest in a month on Aug. 16, for a total of 1,439.