WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Florida reported 212 new deaths from coronavirus to move near fifth overall in the United States, as cases increased by 8,109, though 51 percent of them were in Miami-Dade County, including a dump of weeks-old data from one lab, the Florida Department of Health announced Wednesday.
In Palm Beach County, there is encouraging news. Increased cases were 293 and the first-time daily positive rate reported from labs Tuesday was 6.1 percent, the lowest in two weeks among nearly 4,700 tests. The state rate increased to 11.89 from 10.29 the day before and 8.36 one week ago and under the 10.0 percent target. The high was 12.03 on July 29.
Total daily tests again stayed under 100,000 at 81,197 but the positive rate of daily tests spiked to 16.50 percent, which is the highest in two weeks, from 14.69 the day before when there were 66,954 tests. The two-week low was 11.67 last Wednesday.
Palm Beach County's fatalities increased by 14 to 954, second in the state behind Miami-Dade, after 4 Monday and a record 27 on Friday.
On the Treasure Coast, St. Lucie rose 3 to 180 one day after a record 14 as Martin increased by 1 to 100 and Indian River remained at 57. Okeechobee, which reported its first 2 fatalities on July 25, stayed at 12.
Miami-Dade rose by 30 and Broward went up by 3.
Florida was in sixth place in the United States with 8,765 deaths, just 4 from Massachusetts, which added 18 deaths later Wednesday. Florida's nonresident deaths rose by 1 to 133 for a total of 8,898.
Texas is in fourth place with the addition of a record 324 deaths for a total of 9,034, breaking the mark of 322 set July 30. California reported 180 new deaths and is in third place overall with 10,648. Arizona added 148 and is in 13th place as Georgia gained 105 and moved into 10th place ahead of Connecticut.
Florida represented 15.34 percent of the deaths and 14.9 percent of the cases in the United States on Wednesday, according to Worldometers.info.
New hospitalizations rose by 593 compared with 508 the day before.
Deaths
Seven times Florida's deaths surpassed 200, including the previous state death record of 257 on July 31. Others in the 200s includes 225, 245, 252, 216.
Florida reported 91 deaths Monday after 77 Sunday. Deaths are lower in past weekends' data.
The first two deaths were announced on March 6. On June 16, Florida was in 11th place.
State and county increases represent fatalities received by the state Tuesday and not the number of fatalities that occurred then. The day someone dies and when it is received by the state can lag for several days. So far, the most deaths occurred on July 16 with 172.
In the state report Wednesday, 213 new deaths were added since the previous report and 1 was removed because it not determined to be caused by coronavirus for a net change of 212
Pinellas rose by 9 to 522 in fourth place and Hillsborough went up by 31 to 426 in fifth place. No. 6 Lee climbed by 11 to 362.
In South Florida, there were 51 of the 212 deaths – 24.1 percent – reported for a total of 4,104 at 46.8 percent though the population only comprises 30 percent.
Deaths rose by 1,139 in the state over seven days (a daily average of 162) for 14.9 percent and in Palm Beach County it was 72 for 8.2 percent. Two months ago the one-week figure was in the mid 200s. The U.S. figure is 4.6 percent with the world at 5.8 percent.
Miami-Dade climbed to 1,939, which is 164 more in one week. Broward increased to 859 with a rise of 76 in one week.
Palm Beach County's death count is higher than 21 states, including Iowa 953 after gaining 13 more. Nevada is at 9996 after adding 15.
The state on Wednesday identified 14 fatalities in Palm Beach County: 9 men (52, 67, 75, 86, 87, 89, 89, 89, 90) and 5 women (65, 67, 81, 93, 94). St. Lucie added 2 women (64, 98) and an 82-year-old man. Martin's death was a 91-year-old woman.
Cases
Since the first two cases were announced on March 1, Florida's total has surged to 2.6 percent of the state's 21.48 million population with 550,901, second in the nation.
In one week, cases have risen by 48,162 at 9.6 percent. Last Wednesday, Florida became the second state to pass 500,000 cases.
California is in first place overall with 586,056 cases, including the addition of a U.S.-high 11,645 Wednesday but the state reported more than half were from a backlog created by a data reporting error. Texas had the third-most cases, 6,200 and is third overall with 506,82. New York, which was the leader during much of the pandemic, is in fourth at 422,703 with 700 more.
Florida's cases have been below 10,000 for 18 days when they climbed by 12,200 on Saturday, July 26.
Florida's case increase Tuesday was 5,409 and Monday was 4,155, the lowest since June 23 when there were 3,276.
Florida's case increase Sunday was 6,229 after Saturday's 8,502, the first time in one week the number was above 8,000.
Cases in Florida had stayed below 2,000 until June 13 with 2,581 and they often 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. The second highest is 13,965 on July 16.
In Palm Beach County, new cases were 293 compared with 344 the day before. The record was 1,171 July 5 for a total of 37,297, including residents and nonresidents.
Miami-Dade's cases increased 4,141 compared with 1,507 the day before.
Sen. Marco Rubio posted on Twitter that the "jump in COVID19 cases and positive rate is due to a single lab dumping up to 2 1/2 weeks worth of test results in one release. They say many of these positives are up to 10 to 18 days old."
Broward was at 475 vs. 707. In the Treasure Coast area, the rise over one day was 48 in St. Lucie, 11 in Martin, 19 in Indian River and 4 in Okeechobee.
Testing
The total now is 4,093,972, fourth in the nation, behind No. 1 New York, No. 2 California and No. 3 Texas. That Florida figure is 19.1 percent of Florida's population, though some people tested more than once.
The overall positive rate was a record 13.46 percent Wednesday after 13.46 Tuesday.
Several weeks ago the daily rate was around 2-3 percent but has risen to 14.70. The record is 20.71 percent on July 8 when there were 51,686 tests.
The record test total was 142,964 July 11.
In Palm Beach County, the first-time rate was 2.6 percentage points below 8.7 a day earlier. The highest over two weeks was 10.7 percent on Aug. 3.
Miami-Dade's figure was 18.3 percent, the highest in two weeks after 13.6 the day before. Miami-Dade's highest was 26.4 on July 8. In Broward, the percentage was 8.4 percent – just 0.1 below the low set twice over two weeks and compared 10.1 percent the day before.
Elsewhere, St. Lucie was 8.7 after speaking to 14.6 percent the day before and two-week low of 6.9 on Aug. 2. Martin matched a 14-day low of 3.9 percent set Aug. 1 and 6.3 percent the day before. Indian River's figure was 6.6 percent compared with 7.2 the day before and a 14-day low of 5.1 last Thursday. Okeechobee's rate was 10.0 percent among only 37 tests compared with 25.0 and a two-week high of 30.2 five days earlier.
With more testing and no requirements for someone to take a test, the median age is at 40, and 42 for tests reported Tuesday.
Palm Beach County has 37,934 cases out of 286,752 total tested for 13.2 percent overall, not including those awaiting tests and inconclusive. Anything 10.0 percent and above is considered out of "target range" by the health department.
Miami-Dade leads with 139,271 positive cases out of 710,504 tested for 19.6 percent, and Broward is second with 64,080 cases and 445,709 tested for 14.4 percentage.
In Martin County, it's 3,863 of 26,029 for 14.8 percent. In St. Lucie, it's 5,968 out of 43,975 for 13.6 percent, Indian River with 2,574 of 27,532 for 9.3 percent and Okeechobee 1,081 of 6,710 for 16.1 percent.
Mortality rate
The mortality rate compares positive cases against deaths.
It is 1.6 percent in the state for all deaths and cases, including nonresidents, compared with 3.2 percent in the United States and 3.6 percent worldwide, which passed 746,000 deaths and passed 20.8 million cases Wednesday.
Palm Beach County's rate was 2.5 percent, compared with Broward at 1.4 percent and Miami-Dade with 1.4 percent. With much fewer deaths, the mortality rate is 3.1 percent in St. Lucie, 2.6 percent in Martin, 2.2 percent in Indian River and 1.1 percent in Okeechobee.
Florida has 408 deaths per 1 million people compared with the U.S. average of 511 per million. New York, which represents 19.4 percent of the deaths in the nation, has 1,690 per million. Worldwide, the figure is 95.8 per million.
Age breakdown
The youngest deaths are a 9-year-old girl from Putnam as well as the two 11-year-olds, a boy in Miami-Dade and a girl in Broward, who are the only three in the 5-14 age class.
There are 21 deaths in the 15-24 class with no change. The youngest in Palm Beach County is a 22-year-old woman.
Sixty people from 25 to 34 also have died from the virus, which increased by 1.
A total of 2,887 people 85 and older have died in the state from the virus, an increase of 78 in one day.
Ninety-three percent of the fatalities are 55 and older and 62 percent are 75 and older. A smaller percentage of older people have tested positive – 26 percent age 55 and older and 6 percent 75 and older.
At the other end of the age spectrum, there are 9,146 cases of infants to 4 years old, an increase of 83, and 198 were hospitalized, which was an increase of 4. From ages 5-14, there are 21,641, an increase of 263 with 174 in the hospital at one time, which is an increase of 6.
From the infant to 54 age group, 394,953 of the 545,040 residents have tested positive. In that group, 645 have died for a 0.16 death percentage. From infant to 64, there are 465,829 cases. A total of 1,543 have died for a 0.33 percentage.
Cities
West Palm Beach is in first place among Palm Beach County cities with 9,478, an increase of 77. Lake Worth, which includes the city and county portion, rose 97 to 6,674 followed by Boca Raton at 5,165, up from 5,096, Boynton Beach at 3,358 from 3,331 and Delray Beach at 2,578 vs. 2,557. A total of 822 in the county not designated by a city.
Port St. Lucie leads the Treasure Coast with 3,524, an increase of 29, followed by Fort Pierce at 2,167, up 18, and Stuart with 1,857 vs. 1,853.
In Indian River County, Fellsmere, which has a population of 5,754, remained at 378 compared with only 3 on May 31.
Hospitalizations
A total of 31,947 people in the state have been hospitalized, a rise from 28,753 seven days ago. That means it is a running total and includes people who have been released or died.
The number is 2,907 is in Palm Beach County, an increase of 34 compared with 30 the day before; 339 in Martin, which was an increase of 2; 383 in St. Lucie with an increase of 5, Indian River increased by 5 to 203 and Okeechobee went from 103 to 108.
Long-term care
Forty-three percent of the deaths, 3,730 are residents and staff of long-term care, including 390 in Palm Beach County, which is second most in the state behind 638 in Miami-Dade. The state increase was 92 and in Palm Beach County it went up by 9.
National
Since the first death was reported five months ago on Feb. 29, the toll has risen to 169,131, an increase of 1,386 on Wednesday, according to Worldometers.info.
Johns Hopkins reports 166,035, a gain of 1,499, the highest since May.
Cases reached 5,360,302, with an increase of 54,345, according to Worldometers.info. They have exceeded 70,000 seven times, including a record 78,446 on July 24.
Last Wednesday in the U.S., there were 1,319 more deaths and 55,148 more cases.
The one week U.S. death increase was 7,484 at 4.6 percent.
New York has the most deaths in the nation with 32,8674, including 17 more Wednesday, among the lowest since the outbreak, after a high of 799 in April.
Among other states in the top 10 for deaths: No. 2 New Jersey with 2, No. 7 Illinois 15, No. 8 Pennsylvania 48, No. 9 Michigan 6.
Also, No. 11 Connecticut had 6. No. 23 Washington, the original epicenter in the United States, reported 5.
Worldwide
The U.S. represented 20.3 percent of the world-high 6,822 additional deaths Wednesday and 22.7 percent of the world total though its population is only 4.3 percent of the global total. The one week world death increase was 41,118 at 5.8 percent.
Last Wednesday's death increase was 6,814.
Cases increased by 285,593, behind a record 289,648 on July 24.
Brazil, which is second behind the United States for deaths, reported 1,164 after a record 1,554 on July 29 at 103,099. Brazil added 58,081 cases for a total of 3,112,393 and behind the U.S.
Mexico reported 737 more deaths late Wednesday compared with a high of 1,092 on June 4 for a total of 498,380 in third place.
India added 835 deaths to rise to 46,188 and moved into fourth place past United Kingdom when England removed 5,377 previously counted deaths. The Asian nation also reported a record 67,066 cases for a third-place total of 2,395,471 behind the U.S. and Brazil.
Four European nations are in the top 10. The United Kingdom reported an additional 20 deaths for 41,329 in fifth place. The daily high was 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 added 17 and No. 8 Spain reported none.
No. 9 Peru gained 212 deaths and No. 10 Iran had 188.
Russia is in fourth place in the world in cases with 902,701, including an additional 5,102. The nation gained 129 deaths for 11th place.
No. 17 Canada reported 15 deaths to rise to 9,006, as well as 423 cases.
Sweden, which has been doing "herd immunity," reported 5 deaths for 5,775 and listed no new cases. Neighboring Norway remained at 256 for the ninth day in a row, as well as 22 more cases.
No. 26 China, the original epicenter of the world, hasn’t reported a death since April 26 and added 19 cases Thursday.
Japan added 7 deaths for 1,059 and 1,282 cases Wednesday.
