WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Florida's coronavirus death toll passed 17,000 residents with the addition of 53 fatalities as new cases dropped more than 1,000 to 5,245 in one day, the Florida Health Department announced Friday. Also, the state's first-time daily positivity rate increased slightly to 6.36 percent but Palm Beach County dropped by 2.6 percentage points to 4.61, the first time in 13 days it was under 5 percent.
The state considers anything above 5 percent a "danger" threshold.
Since the first two deaths were announced on March 6, which is 245 days, the death toll has reached 17,014 for an average of 69 per day. Florida's total including nonresidents is 17,224, which increased by 1 to 210.
Deaths passed 16,000 residents, 16,021 on Oct. 19, which is 19 days ago. It took 12 days for Florida's death toll to go from the 15,000 milestone to 16,000, the same to surpass that figure Oct. 7, but nine days to surpass 14,000 and eight to go past 12,000. It was 49 days for Florida's death toll of residents to reach the first 1,000 yet it was only 40 days to more than double. More than three months ago, July 20, there were 5,075 deaths.
Thursday's state death increase was 39 and last Friday's rise was 72.
Sunday's 28 deaths were the lowest since 20 one Monday ago. One Sunday ago, they rose by 12, which was the least since 5 on Sept. 23.
The last time there was a triple-digit increase was 105 on Wednesday, Oct. 21, and they were last highest 141 on Thursday, Oct. 15. The record was 276 deaths on Tuesday, Aug. 11.
Palm Beach County's deaths remained at 1,606, which is second to Miami-Dade and ahead of Broward after a rise of 2 Thursday.
St. Lucie rose by 1 to at 339, and remaining the same were Martin at 168 and Indian River at 126. Okeechobee stayed at 42 with its first two fatalities on July 25.
Broward increased by 3 and Miami-Dade by 1.
With a net increase of 5 deaths in South Florida of the 53 state total there are 7,497, which is 44.1 percent of the state figure though the population only comprises 30 percent.
The number of deaths over one week is 294, an average of 42, compared with 380 the previous week.
In one week cases have risen by 32,409 for an average of 4,679 at 4.1 percent. The previous week the increase was 28,436 with an average of 4,062. The average since the first case, which was 250 days ago, is 3,331 per day.
Cases have exceeded at least 4,000 in 10 of the past 11 days. Thursday's increase of 6,257, was the highest since 6,352 on Aug. 15, not including 7,569 Sept. 1 because of a data dump.
Last Friday, they rose by 5,592.
Wednesday's new cases were 4,324 and last Thursday it was 4,198.
On Saturday, infections had dropped to 2,331, the only time in the past week they were below 4,000 and the lowest since 2,144 on Oct. 2.
On Monday, Sept. 29, the 738 cases were fewest since June 2 when there were 617 additional infections. Then, they then increased to 3,266 on Tuesday, Sept. 30.
Although infections in Florida are trending upward like in most other states in the nation, new cases are exponentially lower than its U.S. daily high of 15,300 in July.
Palm Beach County's daily cases increased by 364 one day after 458. On Sept. 28, the rise was 27.
Florida's total of 832,625 cases is nearly 9 percent of the total infections in the U.S., which passed 9 million one Friday ago, though the state only comprises 6.5 percent of the population.
Cases passed 800,000 on Friday, 700,000 on Sept. 27, after going above 600,000 Aug. 23, 500,000 on Aug. 5, 400,000 on July 24, 300,000 on July 15, 200,000 on July 5, 100,000 on June 22.
Florida's first-time daily infection rate of tests reported by labs Thursday was 0.18 percentage more than 6.18 the day before and 7.72 two days before, the highest level since 7.9 on Aug. 17. It was the seventh time in 14 days and five in a row it was 6 percent or more with low of 3.67 Oct. 23.
Palm Beach County's percentage rate had been 5 percent or above for 12 days in a row. The rate dropped to 4.61 from 7.21 percent, which was the third day in a row it was 7 percent or more, including 8.36 three days ago, which was the highest since 8.81 on Aug. 10, not including a date dump when it was 8.68 two weeks ago. Ten days ago, the rate hit 8.32 percent. The low was 2.70 on Aug. 23. It was 1.92 on Oct. 11, which was the smallest since 1.5 percent on May 19.
The state's total daily positivity rate for all tests increased to 7.41 percent on 89,359 tests one day after 7.35 on `08,792 tests and two-week high of 9.31 percent on 61,922 tests two days ago. The two-week low was 4.64 Oct. 23. Only 20,987 tests were reported Sept. 27 and the record test total was 142,964 July 11.
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: 73 on Oct. 7.
The state report Friday identified 39 deaths with 14 previously reported cases added as a fatality for a net increase of 53.
Florida's new hospitalizations rose by 188 compared with 362 the day before. The state reported Friday there are currently 2,357 hospitalized with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19, which was 170 less than Wednesday.
Deaths
Since June 16, Florida has climbed seven spots from 11th place in the nation to fourth. And the state is 12th in deaths per million.
Texas is in second place with the addition of a U.S.-high 136 deaths after a state-record 324 on Aug. 11, for a total of 18,589. California reported 51 and is in third place with 17,866. New Jersey, which had been second throughout the pandemic, is in fifth place with 16,416, adding 13 fatalities.
Deaths have had upward and lower trends since the pandemic in Florida. A few months ago they were averaging more than 1,200 a week with one-week figures earlier in the mid 200s.
Palm Beach County increased by 20 deaths over seven days for 1.3 percent. The U.S. figure is 2.8 percent with the world at 4.0 percent.
Miami-Dade rose to 3,671 with 28 more in seven days. Broward is at 1,545 with the increase of 23 in a week. St. Lucie has gone up by 4 deaths compared with Martin by 3, Indian River by 1 and Okeechobee by 4.
Palm Beach County's death count is higher than 20 states, including Kentucky's 1,544 with 10 reported Friday.
Pinellas rse by 1 to 83`1 in fourth place, Hillsbourgh by 2 to 830 for fifth place, Polk by 2 to 637 in sixth, Orange by 9 to 576 in seventh and Lee by 2 to 531 in eighth.
The state identified 1 death in St. Lucie: an 85-year-old woman.
Cases
Since the first two cases were announced eight months ago on March 1, Florida's total has surged to 3.9 percent of the state's 21.48 million population with 832,625, third in the nation and 13th in cases per million.
California has the most cases in the U.S. at 951,094 with 6,518 more Friday. Texas had 7,221 and is second overall with 942,539. New York, which was the leader during much of the pandemic, is in fourth at 522,021 with an increase of 3,221, the most since 3,491 on May 7.
Twenty-two states reported at least 2,000 cases, with 11 setting state records.
Five states in the Midwest broke records: No. 5 Illinois with a U.S.-high 10,578, No. 9 Wisconsin with 6,141, No. 21 Minnesota with 5,442, No. 12 Ohio with 4,997, No. 16 Indiana with 4,637. Other Midwest states with high cases: No. 15 Missouri with 4,499, No. 14 Michigan with 4,267 and Iowa with 3,133.
And others setting records were No. 28 Colorado with 3,643, No. 33 Kansas with 4,726, No. 13 Pennsylvania with 3,648, No. 16 Utah with 2,987, No. 7 North Carolina with 2,908, No. 34 Nebraska with 2,681.
Miami-Dade's cases were 1,110 compared with 13,96 the day before and Broward's increase was 567 vs. 803. In the Treasure Coast area, the rise over one day was Martin 2319 vs. 23, St. Lucie 53 vs. 68, Indian River 32 vs. 34 and Okeechobee 4 vs. 9.
Testing
The state is no longer listing a running total of Floridians tested or total tests. Worldometers.info lists Florida with 10,328,997 total tests behind No. 1 California, No. 2 New York, No. 3 Texas and No. 4 Illinois.
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 increased to a two-week high of 6.96 percent one day after 6.87 and a two-week low of 2.48 on Oct. 23. The rate hit 26.4 on July 8. Broward's rate was 6.13 percent after 6.31, a two-week high of 7.40 Oct. 27 and a two-week low of 2.84 Oct. 23.
Elsewhere, St. Lucie's rate increased to 6.18 one day after 4.69, a two-week high of 9.06 Oct. 26 and a low of 3.80 Oct. 25. Martin's rate was a two-week low of 2.64 percent after 4.59 percent and a two-week high of 6.95 Oct. 27. Indian River's rate was 5.64 percent after 7.2 a two-week high of 8.8 Oct. 24 and a low of 3.93 six days ago. Okeechobee's rate was 7.55 percent on 49 negative tests after 3.11on 280 negative tests, a two-week high of 15.22 on 39 negative tests three days ago and zero percent on 32 negative tests four days ago.
Mortality rate
The mortality rate compares positive cases against deaths.
The state's rate was 2.1 percent for all deaths and cases, including nonresidents, compared with 2.4 percent in the United States and 2.5 percent worldwide, which neared 1,248,000 deaths and passed 49.6 million cases Friday, according to Worldometers.info.
Palm Beach County's rate is 3.0 percent compared with Broward at 1.7 percent and Miami-Dade with 1.9 percent. With much fewer deaths, the mortality rate is 3.6 percent in St. Lucie, 3.1 in Martin, 3.1 percent in Indian River and Okeechobee 2.4 percent, which is the highest ever.
Florida has 792 deaths per 1 million people compared with the U.S. average of 731 per million. New York, which represents 14.3 percent of the deaths in the nation, has 1,737 per million. Worldwide, the figure is 160.1 per million.
Age breakdown
Five deaths are among youths 14 and under, a 6-year-old from Hillsborough, a 9-year-year old from Putnam, two 11-year-olds, a boy in Miami-Dade and a girl in Broward, as well as a 12-year-girl from Duval.
Four other juveniles are among the 32 deaths in the 15-24 class, including 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. This class didn't change.
Ninety-nine people from 25 to 34 also have died from the virus with no change.
A total of 5,436 people 85 and older have died in the state from the virus, an increase of 17 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 13,857 cases of infants to 4 years old, an increase of 80, and 329 were hospitalized, which didn't change. From ages 5-14, there are 36,901, an increase of 315, with 306 in the hospital at one time, which increased by 1.
From the infant to 54 age group, there are 592,602 of the 821,526 residents' cases. In that group, 1,120 have died, with an increase of 3, for a 0.19 death percentage. From infant to 64, there are 698,364 cases. A total of 2,991 have died, with 9 more, for a 0.43 percentage.
Cities
West Palm Beach is in first place among Palm Beach County cities with 13,032 with an increase of 80. Lake Worth, which includes the city and county portion, increased by 34 to 8,794, followed by Boca Raton at 8,327 up from 8,256, Boynton Beach went to 4,809 from 4,778 and Delray Beach at 3,717 vs. 3,702. A total of 1,713 in the county not designated by a city. In addition, the list of cities includes separate listings of misspellings and miscoded counties.
Port St. Lucie leads the Treasure Coast with 5,585, an increase of 32, followed by Fort Pierce at 3,148, up 11, and Stuart with 2,545, which rose by 11.
In Indian River County, Fellsmere, which has a population of 5,754, remained at 438 compared with only 3 on May 31.
Hospitalizations
The total of 50,265 people in the state have been hospitalized, a rise from 49,185 seven days ago. That means it is a running total and includes people who have been released or died.
The number is 4,243 in Palm Beach County, with an increase of 13 compared with 8 the day before. Martin remained at 427, St. Lucie increased by 6 to 803, Indian River by 3 to 363 and Okeechobee stayed at 196.
Long-term care
Forty percent of the deaths, 6,846 are residents and staff of long-term care, including 725 in Palm Beach County, which is second most in the state behind 848 in Miami-Dade. The state increase was 19 and Palm Beach County didn't change.
Nation
Since the first death was reported on Feb. 29, the national toll has risen to 236,064, a rise of 1,137 Friday, according to Johns Hopkins. Worldometers.info has tabulated 242,230 deaths with an increase of 1,248.
Cases rose to 9,732,932, a rise of a record 125,596, beating the previous mark of 121,888 a day earlier, according to Johns Hopkins. COVID Tracking Project lists the case increase as a record 125,552 ahead of the former mark of 116,255 the day before. Worldometers.info has it at a record 132,540, ahead of 123,718 the day before.
Last Friday in the U.S., there were 1,030 more deaths and 99,321 cases.
The one week U.S. death increase was 6,374 at 2.8 percent.
New York has the most deaths in the nation at 33,664 with Johns Hopkins reporting 7 more after a high of 799 in April. Hopkins lists confirmed and probable deaths, with the latter not a positive case.
Among other states in the top 10 for deaths: No. 6 Illinois 84, No. 7 Massachusetts 21, No. 8 Pennsylvania 44, No. 9 Georgia 30 and No. 10 Michigan 47.
Also, No. 11 Arizona reported 22 deaths, as well as an additional 1,996 cases. Kansas had a state-record 79 but the state only reports data three days a week. No. 25 Washington, the original epicenter in the United States, reported 13.
Worldwide
The U.S. represented 13.7 percent of 9,082, surpassing the mark of 9,063 Wednesday, though Spain reported 1,300 from several months ago in reclassifying the cause of death, and 19.4 percent of the world total though its population is only 4.3 percent of the global total.
The one week world death increase was 52,959 at 4.0 percent.
Last Friday's death increase was 7,523.
Cases increased a record 623,266 one day after the previous mark of 617,383 and passing 500,00 for the first time nine days ago and 400,000 for the first time on Oct. 15.
Brazil has been trending down in deaths and cases. The nation, which is second behind the United States for deaths, reported 256 deaths to rise to 162,035. Brazil's record is 1,554 on July 29. The nation added 18,247 cases at 5,632,505 in third place.
India reported 47,638 new cases compared with a world-record 97,894 in September, for second-place behind the U.S., with 8,411,724. Also, India recorded 670 deaths, behind a national-record 1,299, to rise to 124,985 and in third place.
Mexico announced 551 more deaths late Friday compared with a high of 1,092 on June 4 for a total of 94,323 in fourth place.
In Europe, coronavirus is surging at record cases levels and deaths that are the highest since the spring with nations instituting lockdowns. The continent reported 4,371 deaths and 311,451 cases, which is around half of the world total.
Four European nations are in the top 10. The United Kingdom reported 355 deaths, as well as 23,287 cases one week after a record 26,684 in late October. No. 6 Italy, which at one time was the world's epicenter and reached 919 in one day, reported 446, which is the most since 475 on May 2, and a record 27,809 cases. No. 7 France announced 828 deaths, three days after 854, as well as a record 60,486. No. 8 Spain reported 347 deaths and a record 22,516 cases .
No. 9 Iran reported 424 deaths three days after a record 442 deaths and 8,864 cases, which were three days after a record 8,932 cases. No. 10 Peru added 53 deaths.
Russia is in fourth place in the world in cases with 1,733,440, including 1a record 20,582. The nation gained 378 deaths, which was two days after a record 389, in 13th.
No. 22 Canada reported 55 deaths for a total of 10,436 and 4,471 cases, three days after a record 4,672.
Sweden, which has been doing "herd immunity" with no lockdown, reported 13 deaths and is at 6,022. Neighboring Norway reported 1 death to rise to 285, as well as 371 more cases.
No. 34 China, the original epicenter of the world, hasn’t reported a death since April 26, added 33 cases Saturday.
