WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Coronavirus deaths in Florida climbed by 36 to 2,801, including an increase of 9 in Palm Beach County to 397, as additional cases increased by more than 1,000 again in the state, the Florida Department of Health announced Wednesday morning.
Positive confirmed cases rose from 1,096 to 1,371 -- fourth in the nation behind California, Texas and Arizona -- to a total of 67,371 as testing has ramped up. In seven of the past eight days, cases have risen by more than 1,000, including a record 1,419 Thursday. In Palm Beach County, cases rose by 160 after 189 Tuesday and as record 258 one week ago Wednesday.
On Tuesday, deaths in the state rose by 53 and in Palm Beach County by 15. Last Wednesday the state rise was 36 -- the same as this week -- and 8 in the county. The state record is 83 on Tuesday, April 28. Twice, the increase was 72 -- once in April and once last month. In Palm Beach County the record is 17 twice.
In the Treasure Coast area, no additional deaths were reported. Martin County has risen from 10 Thursday, including two fatalities Tuesday. Remaining the same are St. Lucie with 31, Indian River with 11 and Okeechobee with none.
Over seven days, state deaths increased by 235 for 9.1 percent and by 38 for 10.6 percent in Palm Beach County. Those numbers are higher than in the United States and the world over the past week.
Miami-Dade County has the most deaths in the state, rising by 10 to 784. Broward increased by 3 to 349, which is 38 behind Palm Beach County. Lee is in fourth place with 126, a rise of 2.
Twenty-two of the 36 additional deaths are linked to South Florida, which accounts for 1,587 deaths for 56.7 percent of the state total though the population comprises 30 percent.
The state positive test rate increased from 5.2 to 5.3 percent with the rate more than 10 percent for several weeks. The most recent positive daily rate was 6.6 percent compared with 4.6 percent Monday.
In all, there were 20,720 tests compared with 123,770 additional tests announced Tuesday. Total tests reached 1,280,003 with 1,211,652 negative results and the remaining 980 inconclusive or not reported.
The Treasure Coast area reported 60 more cases -- 24 in Martin, 25 in St. Lucie, 5 in Indian River and 6 in Okeechobee.
The mortality rate involving positive cases is 4.2 percent in the state compared with 5.6 percent in the United States and 5.6 percent worldwide, which passed 418,000 deaths and passed 7.4 million cases Wednesday. Palm Beach County's rate was 5.2 percent, compared with Broward at 4.3 percent and Miami-Dade with 3.9 percent. With much fewer deaths, the mortality rate is 4.5 percent in St. Lucie, 6.4 percent in Indian River and 1.6 percent in Martin.
The youngest victim is a 23-year-old woman from Miami-Dade County. A total of 16 people from 25 to 34 have died from the virus in data through Tuesday. A 104-year-old woman is 1 year older than the previous oldest, including a 103-year-old woman from Polk reported Tuesday. A total of 984 people 85 and older have died in the state from the virus.
Ninety-four percent of the fatalities are 55 and older and 64 percent 75 and older. A smaller percentage of older people have tested positive -- 39 percent 55 and older and 12 percent 75 and older. At the other end of the age spectrum, there are 713 cases of infants to 4 years old and 1,570 from 5 to 14.
In Palm Beach County, the youngest is a woman 30 and the oldest a 102-year-old female. The nine fatalities verified Wednesday are seven men and two women, ranging from 74 yo 98. The oldest were two men, 97 and 98.
Palm Beach County's death count is higher than 17 states, including Oklahoma with 355.
West Palm Beach is in first place among Palm Beach County cities with 1,597 cases, an increase of 55. Lake Worth, which includes the city and county portion, rose from 1,534 to 1,562. Boca Raton has 722, followed by Delray Beach with 568, Boynton Beach with 768 and Belle Glade with 472. Port St. Lucie leads the Treasure Coast with 462, an increase of 20.
Palm Beach County has 7,678 cases out of 96,654 total tested for 7.9 percent, not including those awaiting tests and inconclusive. Anything above 10.0 percent is considered out of "target range" by the health department.
Miami-Dade leads with 20,277 positive cases out of 214,841 tested for 9.4 percent, and Broward is second with 8,193 cases and 130,744 tested for 6.3 percentage.
In St. Lucie, it's 696 positive out of 15,233 for 4.6 percent, Martin with 958 of 11,330 for 8.5 percent, Indian River with 172 out of 7,900 for 2.2 percent and Okeechobee with 149 out of 2,194 for 6.8 percent.
An infant has tested positive in every South Florida county.
A total of 11,345 people in the state have been hospitalized at one time, which is 160 more than the day before. That means it is a running total and includes people who have been released or died. Including nonresidents, the number is 1,356 in Palm Beach County, an increase of 42, followed by 122 total in St. Lucie, 103 in Martin, 37 in Indian River and 14 in Okeechobee.
More than half of the deaths, 1,454, are residents and staff of long-term care, including 167 in Palm Beach County.
Florida, which is third-most populous state, is 11th in the nation for total deaths behind Maryland, which has reported 43 more deaths than Florida, including 33 Wednesday, according to Worldometers.info.
Florida has 130 deaths per 1 million people compared with the U.S. average of 348 per million. New York, which represents 27 percent of the deaths in the nation, has 1,577 per million. Worldwide, the figure is 53.6 per million.
National data
Worldometers lists the death toll at 115,130 with 982 additional fatalities Wednesday after 1,093 Tuesday. Johns Hopkins reports 112,908 deaths.
Cases hit 2,066,401 with 19,943 additional ones. Last Wednesday, there were 1,084 additional deaths and 20,798 more cases.
The one week U.S. death increase is 5.3 percent with a gain of 5,757.
Tied for the most additional deaths at 98 were New Jersey, which is second in total fatalities, and No. 7 California. And next at 77 were No. 5 Illinois and No. 1 New York, which reported 799 deaths in one day in April. The others were No. 3 Massachusetts with 46, No. 4 Pennsylvania with 75, No. 6 Michigan with 12, No. 8 Connecticut with 23, No. 9 Louisiana with 12.
Georgia is in 14th place with an increase of 44. Washington, which was the original epicenter in the United States, is in 18th with an increase of 15 Tuesday.
One week ago Wednesday in the United States, there were 109,373, two weeks ago there were 102,388 deaths, three weeks ago there were 95,155, four weeks ago 85,744, five weeks ago 74,981, six weeks ago 61,812, seven weeks ago 48,014, eight weeks ago 32,794, nine weeks ago 17,731,10 weeks ago 6,407, 11 weeks ago 1,261, 12 weeks ago 171, 13 weeks ago 38, 11 weeks ago 11, 15 weeks ago 0.
Worldwide
The U.S. represented 19.0 percent of the 5,165 additional deaths Wednesday -- a percentage that has been declining -- and 27.5 percent of the world total though its population is only 4.3 percent of the global total. The death toll Wednesday was 4,763.
The one week world death increase is 8.0 percent with a gain of 31,109.
Two Latin American nations, Brazil and Mexico, have had skyrocketing deaths and cases.
Brazil reported the most deaths in the world on Wednesday -- 1,300 -- after 1,185 Tuesday. The record is 1,492 Thursday. Brazil has a total of 39,797 deaths -- third in the world, compared with 32,547 one week ago and 25,697 two weeks ago. Brazil also reported a record 33,100 new cases, beating the record of 31,890 cases Thursday, for second place behind the United States with 775,184.
Mexico reported 708 additional deaths, compared with 596 Tuesday, as well as 4,883 cases Wednesday night. The nation's deaths have risen from 8,597 to 15,357 in two weeks into seventh place.
The six European nations in the top 10 – United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, Germany -- reported a total of 363 deaths after 513 Tuesday. But 245 of them were in United Kingdom after 286. Others were No. 4 Italy with 71, No. 5 France with 23, No. 6 Spain with 0, No. 8 Belgium with 10 and No. 9 Germany with 13.
The daily rate was as high as 1,494 in France, 1,172 in Britain, 919 in Italy, 961 in Spain. Italy was the epicenter of the world at one time.
Iran is in 10th place with 81 new deaths. Canada gained an additional 63 deaths and dropped to 12th behind India.
The Asian nation reported 388 deaths, which was the fourth-most in the world Wednesday. Cases rose 12,375 -- the third highest globally and sixth overall.
Russia reported 6,358 cases compared with 8,595 the day before for third place. Also, it reported 216 additional deaths in 13th.
Sweden, which has been doing "herd immunity," reported 78 more deaths with 4,795 for 16th place as well as 198 new cases after 1,056 Friday. Neighboring Norway reported 0 deaths to stay at 239 as well as 18 more cases.
China, the original epicenter of the world but now in 18th place, hasn’t reported a death since April 26 and reported 11 cases Thursday.
