Florida's newly reported coronavirus deaths increased by 98 after three days in triple digits as cases increased by 3,190, and first-time daily positivity rates declined in the state and Palm Beach County, the Health Department announced Saturday.
In Florida, the cases rate went from 5.50 to 4.44, one of 6 days over two weeks under 5 percent, compared with a two-week high 6.19 on Sept. 2. In Palm Beach County, the rate declined from 4.60 to 3.06 percent, one of seven days over 14 days under 4 percent. The county's two-week high was 5.77 on Tuesday.
The daily rate for all tests decreased to a two-week low 5.8 percent on 79,168 tests reported by the labs to the state Friday compared with 6.85 on 73,826 tests the day before. The two-week high was 10.32 percent with a data dump by Quest Diagnostics last week.
Deaths rose by 176 Friday after 211 Thursday and 200 Wednesday. The previous 200-plus day was Aug. 18. The state record was 276 on Aug. 11.
On Tuesday, one day after Labor Day, the death increase was 44 after trending lower for four days: 22 Monday, 38 Sunday, 61 last Saturday, 100 last Friday and 149 last Thursday.
Since the first two deaths were announced on March 6, the death toll has climbed to 12,600 and 12,756 including 156 nonresidents, which didn't change.
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 146 deaths Saturday after a state-record 324 on Aug. 11, for a total of 114,143. California reported a U.S.-high 162 new deaths and is in third place overall with 14,251, just 108 ahead of Texas.
Florida's cases rose 3,650 on Friday after 2,583 Thursday and 2,056 Wednesday. For two days in a row the state's infections were under 1,900 –1,823 Tuesday and 1,838 Monday. Last Saturday's case rose ,656.
Cases had been under 2,000 only one other time in three months – 1,885 last Monday. On June 15, cases increased 1,758.
Palm Beach County's death total rose by 3 to 1,196, third highest in the state behind Miami-Dade and Broward, after 6 deaths were reported Friday.
On the Treasure Coast, Martin increased by 1 to 126 and St. Lucie County remained at 256. For the first time in more than one week, a death was reported in Indian River with 105 and Okeechobee at 21 with the latter's first two deaths on July 25.
Broward increased by 3 and Miami-Dade rose by 46.
In South Florida, there were 55 of the 98 deaths, 56.1 percent, for a total of 5,866 at 46.6 percent though the population only comprises 30 percent.
Pinellas rose by 3 to 703 deaths in fourth place and Hillsborough went up by 1 to 585 in fifth place. Polk climbed by 5 to 488 in sixth and Lee rose by 1 to 448.
Palm Beach County's daily cases increased by 149 after 192 the day before and 100 last week.
Florida's new hospitalizations rose by 194 compared with 214 the day before. The state reported Saturday there are currently 2683 hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19, which is 219 less than the day before.
Deaths
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 Friday 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: 142 on Aug. 13.
In a state list of cases and deaths released Saturday, it reported 2 deaths removed after further determining a cause of death.
Deaths rose by 789 in the state over seven days (a daily average of 113) for 6.7 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 34 for 2.9 percent. The U.S. figure is 2.7 percent with the world at 4.1 percent.
Miami-Dade climbed to 2,882, which is 232 more in one week. Broward increased to 1,279 with a rise of 64 in one week. St. Lucie has risen by 12 deaths in one week compared with Martin by 7, Indian River by 1 and Okeechobee by 1.
Palm Beach County's death count is higher than 21 states, including Rhode Island's 1,071 with no data Saturday.
The state on Saturday identified 4 deaths in Palm Beach County though the increase was 3 with 2 men (85, 90) and 2 women (78, 86). Martin reported an 84-year-old man, Indian River a 65-year-old man and Okeechobee a 94-year-old woman.
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 661,571 second in the nation. The average over six months is 3,393 per day.
In one week, cases have risen by 17,704, which average 2,529 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 750,298 with the addition of a U.S.-high 4,107. Texas had 3,09, and is third overall with 657,589. New York, which was the leader during much of the pandemic, is in fourth at 443,640 with 849 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 43,873, including residents and nonresidents.
Miami-Dade's cases were 415 compared with 481 and Broward's increase was 189 vs. 215. In the Treasure Coast area, the rise over one day was 22 in Martin, 52 in St. Lucie, 9 in Indian River, 12 in Okeechobee.
Testing
Florida's total number of people tested is 4,908,723, fourth in the nation, behind No. 1 New York, No. 2 California and No. 3 Texas. That Florida figure is 22.9 percent of Florida's population.
The overall positive rate remained at 13.48.
The daily rate at one time was around 2-3 percent. The record is 20.71 percent on July 8.
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 was a two-week low of 4.72 percent after 4.85 percent and a two-week high of 7.84, which doesn't include the Quest Diagnostics data dump, on Aug. 31. The rate hit 26.4 on July 8. Broward's rate was a two-week low of 2.69 after 3.12 percent and two weeks in a row under 5 percent with the high of 4.76 on Aug. 31, not including the data dump.
Elsewhere, St. Lucie's rate was 3.64 percent after 5.50, and a two-week low of 3.11 on Aug. 30 and a high of 6.95 on Tuesday. Martin's rate was 5.06 percent after a two-week high of 8.38 percent, and three days under 3 percent over 14 days. Indian River's rate 2.08 percent, one of 7 days near 2 percent and below over 2 weeks, and a high of 4.18 on Monday. Okeechobee's rate was a two-week high of 13.79 on 100 tests after 6.54 on 200 tests, a low of 1.92 on 153 negative tests on Sept. 3.
Palm Beach County has 43,873 cases out of 342,033 total tested for 12.83 percent overall, not including those awaiting tests and inconclusive.
Miami-Dade leads with 163,790 positive cases out of 857,790 tested for 19.09 percent, and Broward is second with 74,273 cases and 532,802 tested for 13.94 percentage.
In Martin County, it's 4,549 of 32,278 for 14.09 percent. In St. Lucie, it's 7,521 out of 55,797 for 13.48 percent, Indian River with 2,971 of 32,916 for 9.03 percent and Okeechobee 1,325 of 10,309 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 924,000 deaths and neared 29.0 million cases Sunday, according to Worldometers.info.
Palm Beach County's rate was 2.8 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 587 deaths per 1 million people compared with the U.S. average of 598 per million. New York, which represents 17.1 percent of the deaths in the nation, has 1,702 per million. Worldwide, the figure is 118.6 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 29 deaths in the 15-24 class: 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.
Eighty-four people from 25 to 34 also have died from the virus with an addition of 2.
A total of 4,094 people 85 and older have died in the state from the virus, an increase of 34 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 11,197 cases of infants to 4 years old, an increase of 53, and 258 were hospitalized, which didn't change. From ages 5-14, there are 27,420, an increase of 147 with 234 in the hospital at one time, with no change.
From the infant to 54 age group, 470,905 of the 654,090 residents' cases. In that group, 851 have died, with an increase of 3, for a 0.18 death percentage. From infant to 64, there are 556,215 cases. A total of 2,224 have died, an increase of 20, for a 0.40 percentage.
Cities
West Palm Beach is in first place among Palm Beach County cities with 10,852, with an increase of 22. Lake Worth, which includes the city and county portion, rose by 20 to 7,558 followed by Boca Raton at 6,158, up from 6,131, Boynton Beach at 3,878 from 3,866 and Delray Beach at 3,000 vs. 2,994. A total of 997 in the county not designated by a city.
Port St. Lucie leads the Treasure Coast with 4,404, an increase of 27 followed by Fort Pierce at 2,686, up 22, and Stuart with 2,123, which was an increase of 2.
In Indian River County, Fellsmere, which has a population of 5,754, remained at 397 compared with only 3 on May 31.
Hospitalizations
A total of 41,215 people in the state have been hospitalized, a rise from 39,912 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, a rise of 15 compared with 15 the day before; 382 in Martin, which didn't change; 612 in St. Lucie with an increase of 3, Indian River went up by 1 to 279 and Okeechobee rose from 147 to 151.
Long-term care
Forty-one percent of the deaths, 5,192, are residents and staff of long-term care, including 519 in Palm Beach County, which is second most in the state behind 760 in Miami-Dade. The state increase was 26 and in Palm Beach County it went up by 2.
National
Since the first death was reported six months ago on Feb. 29, the toll has risen to 193,670, a gain of 691, according to Johns Hopkins. Worldometers reported a gain of 707 to 198,128.
Cases reached 6,482,523 with an increase of 44,780. They have exceeded 70,000 seven times, including a record 78,446 on July 24 and the last time was July 31.
Last Saturday in the U.S., there were 783 more deaths and 44,452 cases.
The one week U.S. death increase was 5,181 at 2.8 percent.
New York has the most deaths in the nation at 33,023 with 3 reported Saturday, after a high of 799 in April.
Among other states in the top 10 for deaths: No. 2 New Jersey 4, No. 6 Massachusetts 16, No. 7 Illinois 22, No. 8 Pennsylvania 1, No. 9 Michigan 9, No. 10 Georgia 41.
Also, No. 11 Arizona reported 27 deaths, as well as an additional 605 cases. No. 23 Washington, the original epicenter in the United States, reported 0 deaths Saturday.
Worldwide
The U.S. represented 19.3 percent of the 4,983 additional deaths Saturday and 21.5 percent of the world total though its population is only 4.3 percent of the global total. The one week world death increase was 36,431 at 4.1 percent.
Last Saturday's death increase was 4,915.
Cases increased by 282,391 after a record 310,692 Friday, according to Worldometers.info.
Brazil, which is second behind the United States for deaths, reported 800 deaths to rise to 131,274. Brazil's record is 1,554 on July 29. The nation added 31,880 cases at 4,315,858 in third place.
India reported the world's most cases in one day again, 97,570, to rise to 4,659,985, which is second in world behind U.S. India also record 1,201 deaths, behind the record 12,09 two days ago, to rise to 77,472 and in third place.
Mexico announced 421 more deaths late Saturday compared with a high of 1,092 on June 4 for a total of 663,973 in fourth place.
Four European nations are in the top 10. The United Kingdom reported 9 additional deaths for 41,623 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 6 deaths. No. 7 France reported 17 new deaths and a record 10,561 cases ,one day after record 9,843 infections. No. 9 Spain reported no data.
No. 8 Peru gained 123 deaths and No. 10 Iran had 116.
Russia is in fourth place in the world in cases with 1,057,362, including an additional 5,488. The nation gained 119 deaths and is in 12th.
No. 19 Canada reported 7 deaths, after reporting none for the first time since March, at 9,170 and 493 cases.
Sweden, which has been doing "herd immunity,"reported not data and has 5,846 total. Neighboring Norway reported no deaths for the second day in a row to remain at 265, as well as 76 more cases.
No. 28 China, the original epicenter of the world, hasn’t reported a death since April 26, and added `10 cases Sunday.
Japan announced 11 deaths to total 1,423.