COVID-19 cases are exploding again in Florida, with 10,870 new infections reported by health officials Thursday.
That’s the most cases on a single day since the state reported 12,199 on July 25. New infections dropped after that, leveling off at about 2,300 cases a day during the the first week in October.
But the state has experienced an upward trend for the past six weeks, as signs show the coronavirus is spreading and more people are getting swabbed. Almost 147,000 residents were tested for the disease on Wednesday, either for the first time or for a retest.
Case totals have been rising this week, with 6,659 new infections on Monday, followed by 8,847 on Tuesday, and 9,994 on Wednesday. The statewide testing positivity rate for new infections has been between 8% and 9% this week, above the 5% threshold where the virus is considered to be under control.
Florida crossed over 1 million cases on Tuesday and now has a pandemic total of 1,029,030 people who have tested positive for COVID-19. Many of these people have recovered since receiving a positive test result at some point during the pandemic.
The state on Thursday also reported another 100 deaths linked to COVID-19, according to the Department of Health. Most of the deaths happened in recent weeks but were just confirmed in the past day. The pandemic total is 19,112 fatalities, including 238 non-residents who died in the state.
The nation on Wednesday set a pandemic record with over 2,800 COVID-19 deaths in a single day, according to an updated tally released Thursday by Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. also recorded 200,000 new cases, for the second time in a week.
Overall, the coronavirus is linked to more than 270,000 deaths and about 14 million infections in the U.S.
At the same time, the number of Americans hospitalized with COVID-19 topped 100,000 for the first time, according to the COVID Tracking Project. This figure has more than doubled over the past month.
“The reality is December and January and February are going to be rough times. I actually believe they are going to be the most difficult time in the public health history of this nation,” Dr. Robert Redfield, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday.
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South Florida
Broward County: 1,157 additional cases and 14 more deaths were reported on Thursday. Broward has a known total of 110,517 cases and 1,716 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic. The death tally includes 29 non-residents.
Palm Beach County: 679 additional cases and 10 more deaths. The county now has 67,106 confirmed cases and 1,733 deaths. The fatalities include 24 non-residents.
Miami-Dade County: 2,254 additional cases and eight more deaths. The county now has 236,308 confirmed cases and 3,891 deaths. The death tally includes 23 non-residents.
Testing and positivity rates
Public health experts say the virus is considered under control when the COVID-19 test positivity rate is under 5%. Florida exceeds 5% by both of its measures of assessing the rate for testing of residents.
In the first calculation, the state reported a daily positivity rate of 8.19% Thursday, down from 9.11% the day before. This method of calculating positivity counts new infections only, but also counts repeat negative tests, which skews the figure downward.
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According to the state, Thursday’s new case numbers reflect the results of 130,570 COVID-19 tests of Florida residents received from labs in the past day, up from 108,619 results reported Wednesday.
In the second calculation, which includes retests of people who were previously diagnosed, the statewide daily positivity rate is 9.84% based on the latest results for 146,910 residents. That’s down from 10.86% the previous day.
Broward County: Test results for 14,364 residents were reported Thursday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 7.99%. That’s down from 8.59% the previous day.
Palm Beach County: Test results for 8,816 residents were reported on Thursday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 7.52%, down from 8.01% the previous day.
Miami-Dade County: Test results for 23,737 residents were reported Thursday, leading to a daily positivity rate of 9.38%, down from 9.77% the previous day.
Child infections
COVID-19 infections among children under age 18 continued to rise across Florida. Records show 93,256 cases statewide since the beginning of the pandemic.
The state reported an increase of 12,856 cases over the past two weeks and 1,405 new cases in the past 24 hours.
Records show 776,412 kids have been swabbed so far. And 12% of them have tested positive.
Overall, the statistics show 20,635 cases among children in Miami-Dade County, the most in the state, followed by 12,178 cases in Broward. There have been 5,640 confirmed infections among kids in Palm Beach County.
The statewide report also shows 971 children have been treated in hospitals for COVID-19 illness since March. Nine have died. The death total has been the same since Sept. 26.
Hospitalizations
As of 3 p.m. Wednesday, there were 4,291 people hospitalized in Florida with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19, according to the state Agency for Health Care Administration. That was 43 more than around the same time on Wednesday.
In South Florida, Broward County reported 432, a decrease of 12; Palm Beach County had 274, a decrease of one; and Miami-Dade continued to have the most in the state with 782, an increase of 80.
Hospitalizations hit a peak in late July of about 9,500 patients statewide, then dipped as low as 2,011 on Oct. 19. The numbers steadily increased throughout November.
Since the pandemic began, 55,820 residents have been hospitalized for the disease, according to the state health department.
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Deaths
Statewide: The state’s pandemic data report shows a total of 18,874 Floridians have died from COVID-19. In addition, 238 non-residents have died, bringing the total number of deaths in the state to 19,112.
Florida has the fourth-highest total of COVID-19 deaths among the states, behind New York, Texas and California, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Florida’s death rate since the pandemic began ranks 15th in the nation, at 88 deaths per 100,000 people, the CDC reports. That’s higher than the national rate of 83 deaths per 100,000.
Long-term-care facilities: At least 7,398 residents and staff have died at nursing homes and assisted-living centers throughout Florida as of Thursday, up 22 from the day before.
Miami-Dade County has reported the highest number of resident and staff deaths at long-term care facilities, with 868. Palm Beach County was second with 764. Broward has reported 475 deaths.
National and global view
U.S.: More than 14 million people in the country have been infected with the novel coronavirus and 275,201 have died as of 3:30 p.m. Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University’s COVID-19 dashboard.
World: Almost 65 million people have tested positive for COVID-19 and more than 1.5 million people have died from the disease, Johns Hopkins says. The U.S. has had the most COVID-19 cases and deaths of any country. The U.S. has 4.3% of the world’s population, but 21.6% of the world’s cases and 18.3% of the world’s deaths.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
Marc Freeman can be reached at mjfreeman@sunsentinel.com and on Twitter @marcjfreeman.
