Florida adds 8,436 coronavirus cases and 96 deaths

The Florida Department of Health reported 8,436 coronavirus cases and 96 deaths Sunday, bringing the overall number of known infections in the state to 1,058,074.

That means roughly 1 in every 19 Floridians has tested positive for the virus, according to state data.

The number of deaths attributed to the virus since March 1, when Florida’s first known coronavirus cases were reported, is 19,423 — the third-highest death toll in the nation. The number of coronavirus deaths has continued to rise this week. By Sunday, the state was averaging 98.1 per day.

Only two other states have reported caseloads exceeding 1 million people. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Texas was reporting 1.24 million coronavirus infections Sunday afternoon, and California led the nation with 1.3 million infections.

On Sunday night, new stay-at-home orders will take effect in Southern California as the nation dove into its third surge of infections this year. Under California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new restrictions, communities will be asked to stay home once the intensive care unit availability in their region falls below 15 percent.

In Florida, Hillsborough County’s ICU availability was about 16 percent Sunday, teetering on the brink of Newsom’s threshold. Pinellas has just 12.2 percent ICU availability and Manatee has 13.7 percent, according to state data.

In the past year, the coronavirus has infected more than 14.6 million Americans, and in recent days the number of patients currently hospitalized with the virus has topped 101,000 for the first time.

As of midday Sunday, the virus was blamed for more than 280,000 deaths nationwide.

Hospitalizations: By Sunday afternoon, the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration reported 4,400 people across Florida were in the hospital with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19 — an increase of 145 hospitalizations in the past 24 hours.

Roughly 21 percent were in Tampa Bay area hospitals, which reported a combined 907 coronavirus patients.

About 25 percent of regular hospital beds statewide and 23 percent of adult beds in Florida’s intensive care units were available Sunday. About 39 percent of all pediatric ICU beds were empty by 4 p.m. There were 409 total patients.

In the Tampa Bay area, more than 26 percent of regular hospital beds and just under 19 percent of adult ICU beds were empty. Availability of beds in pediatric ICU units is at about 29 percent.

The number of coronavirus Infections, deaths and hospitalizations has steadily increased in Florida since October. That’s after a weeks-long plateau of around 2,000 hospitalizations a day this fall.

On Saturday, Tampa General Hospital announced plans to open the new Taneja Family Global Emerging Disease Institute — a new facility dedicated to treating and researching COVID-19.

Since March 1, TGH has treated more than 1,400 coronavirus patients and conducted more than 120,000 tests for the virus. On Saturday, officials said the hospital was activley involved in more than 30 clinical research trials.

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Tampa General will be one of five hospitals in Florida to receive the first round of COVID-19 vaccines under the state’s pilot program.

A COVID-19 vaccine could be just days away from distribution in the U.S., according to the Food and Drug Administration, though initial supplies will be rationed and aren’t expected to become widely available until the spring.

Positivity: Florida’s average weekly positivity rate continues to increase, and on Sunday was 8.77 percent, according to Johns Hopkins University, which recently changed its metric to align more closely with the Florida Department of Health’s measure.

Still, Florida is one of 46 states above the World Health Organization’s recommended positivity rate of 5 percent or below. A high positivity rate can indicate there’s not enough testing in a given area to capture mild and asymptomatic cases. As testing increases, the positivity rate usually decreases.

According to state data, Florida’s positivity rate for new cases was 7.86 percent and has ranged from 6.22 percent to 9.15 percent in the past two weeks. Those results come from 118,590 coronavirus tests processed by the state in the past 24 hours. Overall, nearly 7.58 million people have been tested for the coronavirus in Florida — about 35 percent of the state’s population.

Local numbers: The Tampa Bay region added 1,440 coronavirus cases and 17 deaths.

Pasco County reported 13 deaths, while one death each was reported in Hillsborough, Manatee, Pinellas and Polk counties.

Pasco County leads the region with an average weekly positivity rate of about 10.18 percent, followed by Hernando at 9.31 percent, Citrus at 9.12 percent, Polk at 8.75 percent, Hillsborough at 7.67 percent, Manatee at 6.64 percent and Pinellas at 6.3 percent.

As of the latest counts, Hillsborough has 61,276 cases and 965 deaths, Pinellas has 34,899 cases and 929 deaths, Polk has 29,135 cases and 703 deaths, Manatee has 17,713 cases and 395 deaths, Pasco has 16,153 cases and 305 deaths, Hernando has 5,395 cases and 230 deaths, and Citrus has 5,143 cases and 182 deaths.

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Tampa Bay Times coronavirus coverage

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