WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The coronavirus death toll continues to surge in Florida, rising by 69 to 1,669 in the state in one day as Palm Beach County increased by 7 to 229, the Florida Department of Health announced Friday morning.
The new state deaths increased by 61 Thursday and 68 Wednesday while Palm Beach rose by 7 and 9 for those days. Ten days ago, records were set -- an increase of 83 in Florida and 17 in Palm Beach County.
The additional deaths' increase was lower in the county vs. the state -- 3.1 percent vs. 4.3 percent.
New cases statewide decreased dramatically from 826 to 371, the lowest since testing ramped up. One week ago Thursday, it was 1,038. In Palm Beach County, the cases increased by 28, compared with 107 Thursday.
The positive test rate dropped to 7.6 percent from 7.8 Thursday and more than 10 percent one week ago. The most recent positive daily rate was 2.0 percent.
A total of 514,075 have been tested, an increase of 18,942 on one day, with 454,122 negative results.
Miami-Dade County has the most deaths in the state, increasing by 14 to 468 in one day. Broward County rose to 248, an increase of 18 for second place. Manatee is in fourth place with 72, and increase of four.
Thirty-nine of the 69 additional deaths are linked to South Florida. Staying the same are St. Lucie with 25, Indian River with 8, Martin with 6 and Okeechobee none. The last death reported in Martin was eight days ago and in Indian River one week ago.
South Florida accounts for 984 deaths, which is 59.0 percent of the state total though the population comprises 30 percent.
The mortality rate involving positive cases is 4.3 percent in the state compared with 6.0 percent in the United States and 6.9 percent worldwide, which passed 275,000 deaths and 4 million cases Friday. Palm Beach County's rate was 6.2 percent, compared with Broward at 4.4 percent and Miami-Dade with 3.4 percent. With much fewer deaths, the mortality rate is 9.1 percent in St. Lucie, 8.0 percent in Indian River and 2.5 percent in Martin.
The deaths in the state range from a 26-year-old man in Miami-Dade to a 103-year-old women in Miami-Dade. Ninety-three percent of the fatalities are 55 and older and 61 percent 75 and older. A smaller percentage of older people have tested positive -- 42 percent 55 and older and 13 percent 75 and older. At the other end of the age spectrum, there are 213 cases of infants to 4 years old and 46 from 4-14 among the 39,199 testing positive.
Palm Beach County's death count is higher than 18 states. The additional deaths announced Friday were 4 men and 3 women, ranging from 49 to 92.
Florida ranks 10th in the nation in total deaths, according to Friday tracking by Worldometers.info.Florida was 558 behind No. 9 Louisiana, which had 19 more fatalities Friday.
Florida has reported 78 deaths per 1 million people compared with the U.S. average of 238 per million. New York, which represents 33.9 percent of the deaths in the nation with 26,585, has 1,367 per million. Worldwide, the figure is 35.4 per million.
New York reported an additional 220 deaths, the lowest in several weeks, after 409 on Thursday.
Neighboring New Jersey is a distant second with 8,964 and reported 130 deaths compared with 246 Thursday.
Third-place Massachusetts announced 150 deaths more deaths -- the second in the nation behind New York -- as opposed to 132 the day before.
Other states reporting triple-digit more deaths are No. 5 Pennsylvania with 125 and No. 6 Illinois with 130. No. 4 Michigan, which was in third place this week before being displaced by Massachusetts, reported 50 more deaths.
Georgia, which has opened nonessential businesses, is in 13th place with 1,399, an increase of 51. No. 17 Washington, which was the original epicenter in the United States, reported 10 more deaths Friday.
A total of 78,615 have died from the virus in the United States, including 1,687 Friday after 2,129 Thursday after 2,528 Wednesday.
The U.S. represented 30.4 percent of the additional deaths and 28.5 percent of the world total though its population is only 4.3 percent of the global total.
Brazil, in a final update Friday night, announced a record 804 additional deaths -- second in the world -- after 600 Thursday. On Wednesday, the South American nation reported 667 more deaths, which at the time was a record. Brazil, which has surged from 6,410 to 9,992 deaths in one week, is in sixth place, about 16,000 behind No. 5 France, which added 243 deaths compared with 178 Thursday and significantly less than the high of 1,438 on April 15.
The United Kingdom, which overtook Italy for second place in the world Tuesday, reported an additional 626 deaths -- the third most in the world behind the United States -- after 539 Thursday. The UK's record death count was was 1,172 on April 4. The kingdom has announced 21,241 deaths, which is 1,040 more than Italy -- at one time an epicenter of the virus. Italy gained 243 more deaths after 274 Thursday and a high of 919 on March 27.
No. 4 Spain's new deaths increased slightly to 229 from 213 and a high of 961 on April 2.
China, the original epicenter, reported only 1 new case and zero new deaths Friday – the 12th day in the row for zero -- for 11th place behind the Netherlands.
One week ago Friday in the United States, there were 65,753, two weeks ago there were 52,191, three weeks ago 37,448, four weeks ago 22,038, five weeks ago 8,839, six weeks ago 2,110, seven weeks ago 309, eight weeks ago 48, nine weeks ago 15, 10 weeks ago 0.
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Palm Beach County's total number of confirmed cases are wide-ranging from newborn to 104.
West Palm Beach leads Palm Beach County with 692 followed by Lake Worth Beach with 552, Boca Raton with 494, Boynton Beach with 426 and Delray Beach with 375. The most cases on the Treasure Coast are in Port St. Lucie with 184.
Palm Beach County has 3,615 cases out of 38,891 total tested, including 64 awaiting results, for 9.3 percent, not including those awaiting tests and inconclusive.
Miami-Dade leads with 13,664 positive cases out of 106,948 tested for 12.8 percent, and Broward is second with 5,688 cases and 62,542 tested for a 9.1 percentage.
On the Treasure Coast area, Martin County reported 10 more cases, St. Lucie up 4, Indian River 1 more and Okeechobee County went up 1.
In St. Lucie, it's 275 positive out of 4,272 for 6.4 percent, Martin with 243 of 2,264 for 9.7 percent, Indian River with 100 out of 2,300 for 4.3 percent and Okeechobee with 23 out of 892 for 2.5 percent.
A total of 6,929 people in the state have been hospitalized at one time, which is 164 more than the day before. That means it is a running total and includes people who have been released or died. Through Friday, the number is 605 in Palm Beach County, 78 in St. Lucie, 45 in Martin, 27 in Indian River and 6 in Okeechobee.
