Florida Reports 22nd Day Of Positivity Under 10 Percent

TALLAHASSEE, FL — Florida health officials reported another 3,571 cases of the coronavirus Thursday as the state reached its 22nd day of daily positivity under 10 percent.

In Florida's hardest hit county, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez told Patch in an interview that he was encouraged by his county's declining positivity rates but urged residents to keep up their guard.

"We’re going to increase our enforcement efforts," he told Patch ahead of a planned press conference on Friday. "As the positivity rate goes down, we’re going to be more and more strict in enforcing the rules because we want to keep those positivity rates down."

Thirty-one Florida counties reported 151 new deaths Thursday (state health officials reported 149) as the total number of positive cases in the state climbed to 637,013, up from 633,442 new cases a day earlier.

The daily positivity rate is calculated by taking the number of people who test PCR-or antigen-positive for the first time divided by all the people tested that day, excluding people who have previously tested positive.

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The total number of deaths in Florida rose to 11,650 on Thursday, up from 11,501 a day earlier. Florida's most recent one-day record of 276 reported deaths was set on Aug. 11. Health officials reported another 150 deaths involving non-Florida residents who died in Florida.

Florida's overall positivity rate was at 13.48 percent Thursday based on 4,724,739 total tests.

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Thursday's death total compares to 128 new deaths Wednesday (health officials reported 127), 187 new deaths Tuesday, 68 new deaths Monday, 14 new deaths Sunday, 148 new deaths Saturday, 94 new deaths Friday (state health officials reported 89) and 135 new deaths last Thursday.

Here's a breakdown of the counties reporting new deaths:

• Miami-Dade County reported 46 new deaths.
• Palm Beach County reported 16 new deaths.
• Broward County reported nine new deaths.
• Marion County reported eight new deaths.
• Polk County reported six new deaths.
• St. Lucie County reported six new deaths.
• Brevard County reported five new deaths.
• Duval County reported five new deaths.
• Hernando County reported five new deaths.
• Lake County reported five new deaths.
• Hillsborough County reported four new deaths.
• Lee County reported four new deaths.
• Pinellas County reported four new deaths.
• Orange County reported three new deaths.
• Manatee County reported three new deaths.
• Volusia County reported three new deaths.
• Bay County reported two new deaths.
• Clay County reported two new deaths.
• Leon County reported two new deaths.
• Seminole County reported two new deaths.
• Charlotte County reported one new death.
• Citrus County reported one new death.
• Escambia County reported one new death.
• Glades County reported one new death.
• Martin County reported one new death.
• Okaloosa County reported one new death.
• Osceola County reported one new death.
• Sarasota County reported one new death.
• Sumter County reported one new death.
• Taylor County reported one new death.
• Calhoun County reported one new death.

The state reported 39,428 hospitalizations on Thursday, up from 39,158 hospitalizations a day earlier. That represents an increase of 270 new hospitalizations over the previous day.

State health officials also reported a total of 3,437 current hospitalizations with a primary diagnosis of COVID-19, down from 3,549 current hospitalizations a day earlier.

In an effort to provide as much information to our readers as possible, Patch has been publishing a daily county-by-county breakdown of the coronavirus cases in Florida's 67 counties, along with the median age of patients, the number of hospital cases by county and the number of deaths.

Miami-Dade, which includes Miami and Miami Beach, reported 159,978 cases of the virus as of Thursday. Nearby Broward County, which includes Fort Lauderdale, reported cases. Palm Beach County, which includes Palm Beach, West Palm and Boca Raton, reported 42,643 cases.

Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa, reported 37,821 cases of the virus while Orange County, which includes Orlando, reported 36,668 cases of the virus.

Patch's County-By-County Coronavirus Data

Patch updates the following chart once each day based on data provided by the Florida Department of Health. The counties that reported new deaths Thursday are shown in bold.

Here is the most recent data available: