Florida Reports Lowest Number Of Coronavirus Deaths In Months

ACROSS FLORIDA — Data reported to the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration showed there were three coronavirus-related deaths on Friday, the lowest number of deaths in Florida in months.

The previous lowest numbers of deaths was on Sept. 13 when eight people died, June 15 when seven people died and Sept. 28 when five people died.

Additionally, the state reported that the number of positive coronavirus patients currently hospitalized is down more than 70 percent since July.

As posted on the Agency for Health Care Administration’s hospitalization dashboard at 11 a.m., there are 2,120 people currently hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of coronavirus.

Thursday's statewide positivity rate for new cases was 4 percent. Thursday was also the 71st straight day the state has been below 10 percent for new positive cases.

On Wednesday, Florida's surgeon general, Dr. Scott A. Rivkees, announced the Florida Department of Health was conducting a review of all coronavirus fatalities reported to the state following complaints that the daily statistics released by the state were confusing and deceptive.

Of the 95 fatalities reported to the state Tuesday, 16 had more than a two-month separation between the time the people tested positive and died, and 11 of the deaths occurred more than a month ago.

Rivkees temporarily held the release of the daily coronavirus data, saying the department needed to "conduct a more thorough review of all fatalities reported to the state."

See related story: Coronavirus Cases Spike; FL Delays Release Of Data Day Earlier

"During a pandemic, the public must be able to rely on accurate public health data to make informed decisions," he said. "To ensure the accuracy of COVID-19-related deaths, the department will be performing additional reviews of all deaths. Timely and accurate data remains a top priority of the department of health.”

According to the data reported to the department of health on Friday, there has been a steady decline in the number of reported deaths of Floridians previously diagnosed with the coronavirus.

The second week of August compared to the second week of September showed a 74 percent decrease in the average number of reported coronvirus-related deaths with only three deaths reported Friday.

The DOH reported 3,720 new cases Friday. To date, there has been 771,780 positive cases, about 13 percent of the 5,093,972 tested for the coronavirus in Florida. Of those, 47,953 were hospitalized and 16,544 died.

Hillsborough, Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Orange and Duval counties continue to have the highest number of positive cases in the state ranging from Dade County with 181,017 cases to Duval with 33,946 cases.

On Thursday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hosted a roundtable discussion in Fort Myers on long-term care facilities during which he announced the state will further ease restrictions on visitations including allowing children to visit their grandparents.

“We need to be able to have family connections," he said. "It’s not just absences of disease that makes someone healthy. It is the social connection, it’s the physical fitness, it’s mental health, it’s all of these things that go into what we should really consider health."

See related story: Coronavirus Restricts Visits With Grandpa Through Glass Barrier

Among those impacted by the nursing home visitation restrictions put in place March 15 was the Langston family of Pasco County. David Langston, 72, was a resident of the Baldomero Lopez State Veterans' Nursing Home in Land O' Lakes. He missed spending his 50th anniversary with his wife in July and had only been able to see his two young grandsons through a window at the facility.

After more than seven months separated from Langston, his daughter-in-law, Jennifer Adkison Langston, said the family decided to pull him out of the nursing facility this month.

"We brought him home just this month," said Jennifer Langston. "The isolation was just too much."

On Friday, they were in the midst of planning a belated anniversary celebration for the couple.

Until DeSantis' announcement Thursday, visitation restrictions had been slightly eased with a limit of five adults per nursing home or assisted living facility resident.

The announcement came after the DOH released new data showing 1,000 fewer coronavirus cases in Florida's long-term care facilities. On Sept. 24, there were 1,870 new coronavirus cases in Florida's nursing homes. That number dropped to 847 residents Friday.

Florida has 139,122 residents living in long-term care facilities. To date, 6,618 staff members and residents of long-term care facilities have died.

Click here to see the number of positive coronavirus cases in your town.

This article originally appeared on the Tampa Patch