WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The Florida Department of Health said late Friday afternoon that there was an error and health officials had incorrectly reported the coronavirus-related death of a 14-year-old Palm Beach County girl among a U.S.-high 176 new deaths after two days of 200-plus fatalities.
In reality, the teen had not passed away, officials say.
"This was an error," Alex Shaw, the director of Communications and Public Information for the Florida Department of Health in Palm Beach County, said in an email to WPTV. "The pediatric report listed 9 deaths in error, the correct number is 8. The report which has been updated reflects the accurate number of deaths."
WPTV had reached out to Shaw around 2:45 p.m. Friday for more information about the reported death of the 14-year-old.
It was only after our inquiry that Shaw said in an email at 4:07 p.m. that the health department had made a mistake.
In all, eight juveniles have died from coronavirus in the state. Palm Beach County's youngest death is a 22-year-old woman, which was identified on May 31.
On Friday, cases climbed by 3,650, a rise of 1,067 in one day.
The first-time positivity rates increased slightly in the state and more than 1 percentage point in Palm Beach County. In Florida, it went to 5.53 from 5.51 with 6 days over two weeks under 4 percent and two-week high 6.19 on Sept. 2. In Palm Beach County, the rate rose to 4.64 percent from 3.62 one day earlier, one of six days over 14 days under 4 percent, including a low of 3.14 on Aug. 30. The county's two-week high was 5.81 on Tuesday.
The daily rate for all tests decreased to 6.85 on 73,831 tests reported by the labs to the state Thursday compared with 7.`7 on 41,294 tests the day before. The two-week high was 10.32 percent with a data dump by Quest Diagnostics last week and a low of 6.35 on Sunday.
Deaths rose by 200 Wednesday and 211 Thursday. 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 Saturday, 100 last Friday and 149 last Thursday.
Since the first two deaths were announced on March 6, the death toll has climbed to 12,502 and 12,658 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 144 deaths Friday after a state-record 324 on Aug. 11, for a total of 13,997. California reported 111 new deaths and is in third place overall with 14,089, just 92 ahead of Texas.
Florida's cases rose 2,056 on Wednesday and 2,583 on Thursday. For two days in a row the state's infections were under 1,900 –1,823 Tuesday and 1,838 Monday. The last time cases were above 3,000 was Saturday at 3,656.
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 6 to 1,193, third highest in the state behind Miami-Dade and Broward, after 9 deaths were reported Thursday.
On the Treasure Coast, St. Lucie County rose by 1 to 256, Martin also increased by 1 to 125 and Indian River has remained at 104 for more than one week. Okeechobee stayed at 20 with its first two deaths on July 25.
Broward increased by 18 and Miami-Dade rose by 47.
In South Florida, there were 73 of the 176 deaths, 41.5 percent, for a total of 5,811 at 46.5 percent though the population only comprises 30 percent.
Pinellas rose by 1 to 698 deaths in fourth place and Hillsborough went up by 6 to 584 in fifth place. Polk remained at 483 in sixth and Lee rose by 3 to 447.
Palm Beach County's daily cases increased by 192 after 110 the day before and 100 last week.
Florida's new hospitalizations rose by 214 compared with 290 the day before. The state reported Friday there are currently 2,902 hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19, which is 86 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. It took 8 days to pass 6,000, 4 to pass 7,000, 7 to pass 8,000, 6 to pass 9,000, 5 to pass 10,000, 10 to pass 11,000.
State and county increases represent fatalities received by the state Thursday 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: 150 and 12.
In a state list of cases and deaths released Friday, it reported 7 deaths removed after further determining a cause of death.
Deaths rose by 752 in the state over seven days (a daily average of 107) for 6.4 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 33 for 2.8 percent. The U.S. figure is 2.8 percent with the world at 4.0 percent.
Miami-Dade climbed to 2,836, which is 204 more in one week. Broward increased to 1,276 with a rise of 54 in one week. St. Lucie has risen by 13 deaths in one week compared with Martin by 6, Indian River by 0 and Okeechobee also by none
Palm Beach County's death count is higher than 21 states, including Rhode Island's 1,071 after adding 4 Friday.
The state on Friday identified 6 deaths in Palm Beach County though the increase was 6: 4 men (60, 85, 85, 86) and 2 females (90, 91). Martin reported a 91-year-old man and St. Lucie a 91-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 658,381, second in the nation. The average over six months is 3,394 per day.
In one week, cases have risen by 18,170, which average 2,596 per day, at 2.8 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 746,191 with the addition of 3,326. Texas had 3,488, and is third overall with 653,356. New York, which was the leader during much of the pandemic, is in fourth at 442,791 with 880 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 43,724, including residents and nonresidents.
Miami-Dade's cases were 481 compared with 461 and Broward's increase was 215 vs. 273. In the Treasure Coast area, the rise over one day was 1 in Martin, 65 in St. Lucie, 20 in Indian River, 18 in Okeechobee.
Testing
Florida's total number of people tested is 4,883,780, fourth in the nation, behind No. 1 New York, No. 2 California and No. 3 Texas. That Florida figure is 22.7 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 two-week high was 11.35 on Aug. 24 and 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 4.86 percent after 5.63 percent and a two-week high of 7.85, 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 3.19 after3.49 percent and two weeks in a row under 5 percent with the high of 4.77 on Aug. 31, including the data dump.
Elsewhere, St. Lucie's rate was 5.24 percent after 5.08, and a two-week low of 3.11 on Aug. 30 and a high of 6.95 on Tuesday. Martin's rate was 8.63 percent one day after a 14-day high of 9.61 and three days under 3 percent. Indian River's rate 4.03 percent after 2.99, 6 days near 2 percent and below over two weeks and a high of 4.18 on Monday. Okeechobee's rate was 7.83 on 200 negative tests after 9.46 on 67 negative tests, a low of 1.92 on 153 negative tests on Sept. 3, a high of 11.11 on Aug. 31 on 40 negative tests, including the Quest data dump.
Palm Beach County has 43,724 cases out of 340,119 total tested for 12.86 percent overall, not including those awaiting tests and inconclusive.
Miami-Dade leads with 163,375 positive cases out of 854,299 tested for 19.12 percent, and Broward is second with 74,084 cases and 530,603 tested for 13.96 percentage.
In Martin County, it's 4,527 of 31,969 for 14.16 percent. In St. Lucie, it's 7,469 out of 55,335 for 13.5 percent, Indian River with 2,962 of 32,702 for 9.06 percent and Okeechobee 1,313 of 10,261 for 12.79 percent.
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-two people from 25 to 34 also have died from the virus with an addition of 2.
A total of 4,060 people 85 and older have died in the state from the virus, an increase of 101 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 11,144 cases of infants to 4 years old, an increase of 60, and 258 were hospitalized, which went up by 2. From ages 5-14, there are 27,273, an increase of 97 with 234 in the hospital at one time, an increase of 2.
From the infant to 54 age group, 468,502 of the 650,922 residents' cases. In that group, 848 have died, with an increase of 8, for a 0.18 death percentage. From infant to 64, there are 550,487 cases. A total of 2,204 have died, an increase of 25, for a 0.40 percentage.
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 neared 919,000 deaths and neared 28.7 million cases Friday, according to Worldometers.info.
Palm Beach County's rate was 2.8 percent, compared with Broward at 1.7 percent and Miami-Dade with 1.7 percent. With much fewer deaths, the mortality rate is 3.4 percent in St. Lucie, 2.8 percent in Martin, 3.5 percent in Indian River and 1.5 percent in Okeechobee.
Florida has 582 deaths per 1 million people compared with the U.S. average of 596 per million. New York, which represents 17.1 percent of the deaths in the nation, has 1,702 per million. Worldwide, the figure is 118.0 per million.
Cities
West Palm Beach is in first place among Palm Beach County cities with 10,830, with a decrease of 5. Lake Worth, which includes the city and county portion, dropped 11 to 7,538 followed by Boca Raton at 6,131, up from 6,095, Boynton Beach at 3,866 from 3,851 and Delray Beach at 2,994 vs. 2,985. The state revises its cases daily, including eliminating duplicates and miscoding. A total of 986in the county not designated by a city.
Port St. Lucie leads the Treasure Coast with 4,377, an increase of 39 followed by Fort Pierce at 2,664, up 15, and Stuart with 2,121, which was an increase of 5.
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 41,021people in the state have been hospitalized, a rise from 39,667 seven days ago. That means it is a running total and includes people who have been released or died.
The number is 3,477 in Palm Beach County, a rise of 14 compared with 17 the day before; 382 in Martin, which didn't change; 609 in St. Lucie with an increases of 8, Indian River went up by 3 to 278 and Okeechobee rose from 145 to 147.
Long-term care
Forty-one percent of the deaths, 5,166, are residents and staff of long-term care, including 517 in Palm Beach County, which is second most in the state behind 753 in Miami-Dade. The state increase was 62 and in Palm Beach County it went up by 5.
National
Since the first death was reported six months ago on Feb. 29, the toll has risen to 192,936, a gain of 1,170, according to Johns Hopkins. Worldometers reported a gain of 1,094 to 197,421.
Cases reached 6,396,551 with an increase of 46,006. They have exceeded 70,000 seven times, including a record 78,446 on July 24 and the last time was July 31.
Last Friday in the U.S., there were 965 more deaths and 50,502 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 33,024 with 5 reported Friday, after a high of 799 in April.
Among other states in the top 10 for deaths: No. 2 New Jersey 9, No. 6 Massachusetts 14, No. 7 Illinois 44, No. 8 Pennsylvania 21, No. 9 Michigan 9, No. 10 Georgia 42.
Also, No. 11 Arizona reported 15 deaths, as well as an additional 521 cases. No. 23 Washington, the original epicenter in the United States, reported 6 deaths.
Worldwide
The U.S. represented 19.3 percent of the 5,683 additional deaths Friday 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 35,339 at 4.0 percent.
Last Friday's death increase was 5,170.
Cases increased by 304,103 after a record 304,466 on Friday, according to Worldometers.info.
Brazil, which is second behind the United States for deaths, reported 899 deaths to rise to 130,474. Brazil's record is 1,554 on July 29. The nation added 44,215 cases at 4,23,978 in third place.
India reported the world's most cases in one day, 96,551, to rise to 4,562,415, which is second in world behind U.S. India also record a world high and national record 1,209 additional deaths to rise to 76,221 and in third place.
Mexico announced 534 more deaths late Friday compared with a high of 1,092 on June 4 for a total of 658,299 in fourth place.
Four European nations are in the top 10. The United Kingdom reported 6 additional deaths for 41,614 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 10 deaths. No. 7 France reported 80 new deaths and 9,406 cases ,one day after record 9,843 infections. No. 9 Spain reported 48 deaths.
No. 8 Peru gained 108 deaths Thursday and No. 10 Iran had 115 Friday.
Russia is in fourth place in the world in cases with 1,051,874, including an additional 5,504. The nation gained 102 deaths and is in 12th.
No. 19 Canada reported no deaths to remain at 9,163 and 709 cases.
Sweden, which has been doing "herd immunity," reported 4 deaths and has 5,846 total. Neighboring Norway reported no deaths to remain at 265, as well as 137 more cases.
No. 28 China, the original epicenter of the world, hasn’t reported a death since April 26, and added `6 cases Saturday.
Japan announced 6 deaths to total 1,412.
