Florida closed out the week with a record for weekly reported hospitalizations due to COVID-19, as the state’s case total and death toll continued to grow.
From Sunday to Sunday, the state reported 3,355 more hospitalizations, a new record for COVID-19 reported hospitalizations in one week. In the span of five days alone — Tuesday to Saturday — the state reported more than 500 new reported hospitalizations per day, including a high of 621 on Wednesday.
To date, 30,505 people have been hospitalized in Florida, the state’s COVID-19 dashboard shows, up 254 more than a day earlier.
From June through mid-July in Florida, there were 207 new reported hospitalizations a day on average. That has spiked to a daily average of 447 since mid-July.
!function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var e in a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var t=document.getElementById(“datawrapper-chart-“+e)||document.querySelector(“iframe[src*='”+e+”‘]”);t&&(t.style.height=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][e]+”px”)}}))}();
In its Sunday report, the Florida Department of Health reported 6,229 new coronavirus cases. To date, 532,806 people have been infected statewide.
Florida’s record for a single-day increase was set July 12 with 15,300 new cases. Sunday’s report marks the 15th day in a row the health department posted an increase below 10,000 cases.
Florida’s case total second to California, which leads the nation with over 554,000 cases, according to its COVID-19 dashboard.
With 77 new fatalities reported Sunday, 8,186 Florida residents are now dead. When including the 129 deaths among nonresidents, the state toll is 8,315. The state’s daily reports include deaths from several previous days, as it can take two weeks or more for fatalities to be logged.
From Sunday to Sunday, there were 45,674 new cases reported and 1,102 deaths, the latter just falling short of the previous week’s record.
In comparison, the week ending Aug. 2 saw 63,277 new cases, 1,230 deaths and 3,086 hospitalizations.
!function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var e in a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var t=document.getElementById(“datawrapper-chart-“+e)||document.querySelector(“iframe[src*='”+e+”‘]”);t&&(t.style.height=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][e]+”px”)}}))}();
Over 3.9 million people have been tested in Florida, with 39,798 more tests reported Sunday compared with the previous day. Over 2.9 million tests have been administered since May 31.
Statewide, Florida’s Department of Health reported a positivity rate of 8.46% for Saturday, but that’s for new cases only and excludes anyone who previously tested positive. For all cases including retests of those previously infected, yesterday’s positivity rate was 12.07%. (Read more: Florida’s hidden data skews COVID-19 test results)
Across the state, 6,860 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of about 12 p.m. Sunday. The state’s online tool updates several times throughout the day.
Central Florida on Sunday added 1,004 cases for a total of 83,238: 324 new cases in Orange for 31,719; 177 in Polk for 14,301; 128 in Osceola for 9,696; 97 in Volusia for 7,876; 70 in Seminole for 7,118; 101 in Brevard for 6,064; 88 in Lake for 5,161; and 19 in Sumter for 1,303. (See details on all Central Florida cases here).
Central Florida had 16 of Sunday’s newly reported deaths, bringing the region’s toll to 1,228. Polk, due to nursing-home outbreaks, has the most coronavirus fatalities in Central Florida with 312, followed by 298 in Orange, 151 in Brevard, 135 in Volusia, 119 in Seminole, 104 in Osceola, 68 in Lake, and 41 in Sumter.
Central Florida accounts for nearly 16% of the cases statewide and 15% of the deaths. The region’s share of the state’s deaths has ticked up compared with June and the start of July, when it had steadily remained at under 9% of Florida’s total.
Orange County reported 336 patients hospitalized, Osceola with 137, Seminole with 108, and Lake with 82 as of about 12 p.m. Sunday.
!function(){“use strict”;window.addEventListener(“message”,(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var e in a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var t=document.getElementById(“datawrapper-chart-“+e)||document.querySelector(“iframe[src*='”+e+”‘]”);t&&(t.style.height=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][e]+”px”)}}))}();
South Florida, home to 29% of Florida’s population, accounts for about 44% of cases with 231,749 total. That includes 2,318 new cases reported Sunday among Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties.
South Florida’s reported deaths on Sunday rose by 43 for a total of 3,599, about 44% of the state’s total.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis rescinded an order requiring people traveling from New York, New Jersey and Connecticut to the Sunshine State to quarantine or isolate for 14 days. Thursday’s order also eliminated detailed requirements for when restaurant employees should be kept from reporting to work because of coronavirus concerns.
Nine Democratic state senators on Thursday sent DeSantis a letter asking him to reconsider a push to reopen schools, saying “This is not the time for another premature victory.”
“What parent is prepared to play Russian roulette with their child’s life?” the letter said.
Experts encourage Central Florida residents to “double down” on wearing masks and social distancing.
“I think it’s a little bit early to claim victory, especially with this virus,” said Dr. Brian Fisher, an infectious disease physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “… This is not a 100-yard dash. This is a marathon … potentially even an ultra-marathon, where we’re committing to these efforts for long periods of time.”
A detailed breakdown of Florida’s coronavirus cases can be found here, and county-by-county data can be found here.
List of mobile coronavirus and antibody testing sites in Central Florida by county
The virus has infected over 19.6 million people and has killed over 727,000 worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins University & Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center. The U.S. has over 5 million cases, the highest in the world, and over 161,000 are dead.
Many Americans have resisted wearing masks and social distancing, calling such precautions an overreaction or an infringement on their liberty. Public health experts say the problem has been compounded by confusing and inconsistent guidance from politicians and a patchwork quilt of approaches to containing the scourge by county, state and federal governments.
The U.S. has the most fatalities by far, followed by Brazil with over 100,000, Mexico with over 52,000, the United Kingdom with over 46,000, India with over 43,000, Italy with over 35,000, and France with over 30,000.
Within the U.S., New York has the most deaths with over 32,000, followed by New Jersey with over 15,000.
Have a comment about this story? Share it on our Facebook page.
You can sign up for new daily Florida coronavirus update by subscribing to The Health Report newsletter and as-they-happen Breaking News emails at OrlandoSentinel.com/newsletters.
Join our Facebook group “Coronavirus news from the Orlando Sentinel“
Local coronavirus victims: Their lives remembered
Deborah Denise Henson spent much of her adult life in pain — the result of a freakish accident that left her with plates and screws in her back. But you wouldn’t have known it from her smile. She survived a host of medical problems before succumbing to COVID-19.
Pong Hui Chartier, known as “Connie” to customers at the dry cleaning business she operated in Ocoee, liked to do things her way. “She’s never been someone that rested. She was always go, go, go. If anyone was going to live to be 100, it would be my mother,” her daughter said. At 79, Pong Hui took only one medication — for her thyroid. But in early March, she was diagnosed with pneumonia. Weeks later, she died as a victim of coronavirus.
Pneumonia caused by COVID-19 killed both Pete and Eleanor Baker, retired snowbirds who were married nearly 62 years and spent winters in an RV in Central Florida.
See more Central Florida coronavirus obituaries here.
Symptoms? Do this
Are you feeling stressed or depressed from the COVID19 outbreak? There are resources available for you. You can contact the Disaster Distress Helpline at 1-800-985-5990 or visit https://www.samhsa.gov/disaster-preparedness
How to protect yourself
Avoid close contact with people who are sick.
Stay home when you are sick and avoid contact with people in poor health.
Don’t touch your eyes, nose and mouth with unwashed hands.
Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then dispose of the tissue.
Wash your hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, especially after going to the bathroom, before eating, and after blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing.
Clean and disinfect touched objects and surfaces using a regular household cleaning spray or wipe.
Follow these recommendations for using a face mask: The CDC now recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social-distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies), especially in areas of significant community-based transmission. Follow these guidelines for using a cloth mask.
Questions? Here are numbers to call
The Florida Department of Health has set up a call center to answer questions about coronavirus. There’s a number for Orange County, too.
The Florida Department of Health’s number is 1-866-779-6121 and is available Tuesday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Residents may also email questions to COVID-19@flhealth.gov.
In Orange County, the number to call is 407-723-5004; it’s available Tuesday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
For mental-health help, here is a list of resources.
For accurate, up-to-date information, visit
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov
The Florida Department of Health: floridahealth.gov/diseases-and-conditions/COVID-19. For questions, call the COVID-19 call center at 866-779-6121 or email COVID-19@flhealth.gov.
A live map of COVID-19 cases around the globe: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
You want to be extra-prepared? Here’s how to stock up before a pandemic: ready.gov/pandemic
For the latest coronavirus updates, visit OrlandoSentinel.com/coronavirus and follow @orlandosentinel on Twitter.
See complete coverage at OrlandoSentinel.com/coronavirus.
This article originally appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
