WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Coronavirus deaths in Florida climbed by 41 in the past day to 2,607, including an increase of 4 in Palm Beach County to 363, as cases surged again, the Florida Department of Health announced Thursday morning.
A total of 1,419 positive results were reported --102 more than Wednesday and third-most in the nation -- for a total of 60,183. Those two days are highest one-day figures since April. In Palm Beach County, the cases rose by 211, compared with a record 258 Wednesday. The previous county high was 224 last Friday, when state cases spiked by 1,212.
On Wednesday, state fatalities rose by 36 after 70 on Tuesday, which were among the highest since the first case was reported in the state on March 1. Last Thursday the increase was 45. The record is 83 on Tuesday, April 28. Twice, the increase was 72 -- once in April and once last month. In Palm Beach County the rise was 8 on Wednesday after 14 Tuesday and highs of 17 on April 28 and May 21.
In the Treasure Coast area, no additional deaths were reported for the second day in a row. St. Lucie County remained at 31, followed by Martin and Indian River at 10, and Okeechobee none.
Over seven days, state deaths increased by 288 for 12.4 percent and by 36 for 11.0 percent in Palm Beach County. The national increase is under 7 percent over 7 days.
Miami-Dade County has the most deaths in the state, rising by 15 to 746. Broward increased by 7 to 325, which is 38 behind Palm Beach County. Lee is in fourth place with 114, an increase of 1.
Twenty-six of the 41 additional deaths are linked to South Florida, which accounts for 1,485 deaths for 56.9 percent of the state total though the population comprises 30 percent.
The Treasure Coast area reported 74 more cases -- 35 in Martin, 27 in St. Lucie, 5 in Indian River and 7 in Okeechobee.
The state positive test rate remained at 5.4 with the rate more than 10 percent for several weeks. The most recent positive daily rate was 5.0 percent compared with 3.0 percent Wednesday.
In all, there were 26,127 tests compared with 31,154 additional tests announced Wednesday. Total tests reached 1,107,952 with 1,046,860 negative results and the remaining 909 inconclusive or not reported.
The mortality rate involving positive cases is 4.3 percent in the state compared with 5.7 percent in the United States and 5.9 percent worldwide, which neared 392,000 deaths and neared 6.7 million cases through early Thursday. Palm Beach County's rate was 5.4 percent, compared with Broward at 4.4 percent and Miami-Dade with 4.0 percent. With much fewer deaths, the mortality rate is 5.8 percent in St. Lucie, 6.9 percent in Indian River and 1.3 percent in Martin.
The youngest and oldest ever in the state were reported one week ago Thursday. A 23-year-old woman from Miami-Dade County surpasses a 26-year-old man from Miami-Dade. On Tuesday, a 26-year-old man from Miami-Dade was reported. A total of 16 people from 25 to 34 have died from the virus. A 104-year-old woman is 1 year older than the previous oldest, one woman each from Miami-Dade and Escambia. A total of 908 people 85 and older have died in the state.
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 -- 40 percent 55 and older and 13 percent 75 and older. At the other end of the age spectrum, there are 480 cases of infants to 4 years old and 1,068 from 5 to 14.
Three deaths were verified Thursday of Palm Beach County residents: women 84 and 85, and a man 94.
The death of a 30-year-woman reported Wednesday ties a man that age verified earlier. The oldest ever in the county is a 102-year-old female.
Palm Beach County's death count is higher than 17 states, including Oklahoma with 344.
The county's total number of confirmed cases range from newborn to 104.
West Palm Beach is in first place in Palm Beach County in cases with 1,330, followed by Lake Worth Beach with 1,327, Boca Raton with 660, Boynton Beach with 669, Delray Beach with 519 and Belle Glade with 420. The most cases on the Treasure Coast are in Port St. Lucie with 360.
Palm Beach County has 6,688 cases out of 82,871 total tested for 8.0 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 18,779 positive cases out of 192,553 tested for 9.8 percent, and Broward is second with 7,462 cases and 115,363 tested for 6.5 percentage.
In St. Lucie, it's 535 positive out of 12,122 for 4.4 percent, Martin with 764 of 8,948 for 8.5 percent, Indian River with 144 out of 6,280 for 2.3 percent and Okeechobee with 104 out of 1,910 for 5.4 percent.
On Thursday, St. Lucie reported an infant boy tested positive with the previous youngest a 2-year-old girl on Saturday. On Wednesday, two girls, 2 and 4, were reported as confirmed cases in Okeechobee. Last week, Indian River reported the youngest person testing positive, a 5-year-old boy. Martin has reported six younger than 1 year old -- 3 boys and 3 girls -- and 25 in all 4 and under.
A total of 10,652 people in the state have been hospitalized at one time, which is 127 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 1,257 in Palm Beach County, which is an increase of 20 in one day, followed by 112 in St. Lucie, 87 in Martin, 36 in Indian River and 11 in Okeechobee.
Florida, which is third-most populous state, is 11th in the nation for total deaths behind Maryland, which has reported 61 more deaths than Florida, including 27 Thursday, according to Worldometers.info. Florida has 122 deaths per 1 million people compared with the U.S. average of 333 per million. New York, which represents 27 percent of the deaths in the nation, has 1,555 per million. Worldwide, the figure is 40.3 per million.
National data
The death toll has passed 100,000. Worldometers lists the total at 110,173 with 1,031 additional deaths through Thursday, which 52 less than Wednesday. Johns Hopkins reports 107,979.
Cases hit 1,924,051 with 21,268 additional ones. Last Thursday, there were 1,223 additional deaths and 22,658 more cases.
The one week U.S. death increase is 6.6 percent with a gain of 6,843
Four states reported triple digit increases: Fourth-place Pennsylvania and fifth-place Illinois each gained 115. Illinois moved past Michigan, which had 25 more deaths.
New York, which reported a record 799 deaths two months ago, had the third-most deaths, 117
after 86 Wednesday for a total of 30,281, including probable deaths, in first place. New York City counts probable deaths though the state doesn't include them in its statistics.
Neighboring New Jersey followed with 100 more deaths for second place.
The remaining top 10 states: No. 3 Massachusetts with 49, No. 6 Michigan with 25, No. 7 California with 60, No. 8 Connecticut with 18, No. 9 Louisiana with 8. California reported the most new cases, 2,548, followed by Texas with 1,769 and then Florida with 1,419.
Georgia is in 14th place with an increase of 24. No. 18 Washington, which was the original epicenter in the United States, is in 18th with an increase of 3.
One week ago Thursday in the United States, there were 103,330 deaths, two weeks ago there were 96,347, three weeks ago 87,293, four weeks ago 76,928, five weeks ago 63,856, six weeks ago 50,234, seven weeks ago 34,095, eight weeks ago 19,802, nine weeks ago 7,576, 10 weeks ago 1,614, 11 weeks ago 239, 12 weeks ago 41, 9 weeks ago 12, 14 weeks ago 0.
Worldwide
The U.S. represented 18.7 percent of the 5,499 additional deaths through Thursday night GMT and 28.1 percent of the world total though its population is only 4.3 percent of the global total. On Wednesday, the increased deaths were 4,928.
The one week world death increase is 8.3 percent with a gain of 30,355.
Two Latin American nations, Brazil and Mexico, have had skyrocketing deaths and cases.
On Thursday night, Brazil reported an additional 1,492 deaths -- the most in world -- smashing the record of 1,269 Tuesday to pass Italy into third place. In one week, Brazil has surpassed Spain and France, rising from 26,764 to 34,039. Two weeks ago, the figure was 20,082. Brazil reported a record 31,890 cases, also the most in the world and breaking the record of 30,102 Saturday -- for second place behind the United States with 615,870.
Mexico has soared into seventh place, passing Germany and Belgium, reporting 816 deaths late Thursday night after a record 1,092 Wednesday as well as 4,442 more cases. The nation's deaths have more doubled from 6,510 to 12,545 in two weeks.
The six European nations in the top 10 – United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, France, Germany -- reported a total of 376 new deaths after 554 Wednesday. Often, one nation recorded those numbers in one day.
United Kingdom had nearly half of them -- 176 -- after 359 Wednesday. Britain, which is second behind the United States, has a total of 39,904. The record was 1,172 on April 21.
Italy, which at one time was the epicenter of the world, had dropped to fourth place with 33,689, gaining 88. One Sunday ago there were 59 – the lowest since 36 on March 7. The high of 919 was on March 27 at 32,007.
France reported 44 more deaths after 81 deaths Wednesday, far lower than the record of 1,438 on April 15.
Other nations in the top 10 reporting less than 100 deaths are No. 6 Spain with 5, No. 8 Belgium with 26, No. 9 Germany with 37, No. 10 Iran with 59.
Canada added 139 deaths after 103 Wednesday for 11th place.
No. 16 China, the original epicenter, reported zero new deaths Thursday – the last one reported was April 26 -- and 1 case.
Sweden, which has been doing "herd immunity," reported 20 more deaths with 4,562 as well as 1,080 new cases after 2,214 Wednesday and the earlier record of 812 on April 24. Neighboring Norway reported 1 death after two days of none for a total of 238 as well as 11 more cases.
Russia continues to surge in cases with 8,831 for a total of 441,108 in third place. Russia reported 169 more deaths to rise to 5,384 in 14th place.
