Florida Reports 6,236 New Cases Of Coronavirus

TALLAHASSEE, FL — The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Florida rose by 6,236 Thursday as state health officials reported another 148 deaths from the virus.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Floridians should be cautiously optimistic over recent declines in emergency room visits involving people with coronavirus symptoms.

"Those COVID-like illness visits, we're seeing those decline all across the Sun Belt," DeSantis said at a coronavirus roundtable in which he encouraged Floridians to donate convalescent plasma if they have recovered from the virus.

"It started to go up in the middle of June, peaked in the beginning part of July — maybe the end of that first week, beginning of the second week of July —and then it's just steadily been declining ever since," the governor said. "When you see that decline, you are then going to see the hospital admissions decline, and fortunately, the mortality will decline from there."

Florida's death toll climbed to 8,913 from 8,765 a day earlier. The latest one-day record of 276 reported deaths was set on Tuesday.

State health officials also reported another 134 deaths as of Thursday involving non-Florida residents who died in Florida.

The total number of coronavirus cases in Florida climbed to 557,137 as of Thursday, up from 550,901 cases a day earlier.

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Thirty-one of Florida's 67 counties reported new deaths on Thursday. That compares with 226 new deaths Wednesday (state health officials reported 212), 276 new deaths reported Tuesday, 91 new deaths Monday, 83 new deaths Sunday (state health officials reported 77), 182 new deaths Saturday, 180 new deaths Friday and 122 new deaths last Thursday.

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

• Dade County reported 15 new deaths.
• Broward County reported 24 new deaths.
• Palm Beach County reported 10 new deaths.
• Pinellas County reported 14 new deaths.
• Polk County reported nine new deaths.
• Clay County reported eight new deaths.
• Lee County reported six new deaths.
• Gadsden County reported five new deaths.
• Orange County reported five new deaths.
• Pasco County reported five new deaths.
• St. Lucie County reported five new deaths.
• Volusia County reported five new deaths.
• Escambia County reported four new deaths.
• Marion County reported four new deaths.
• Brevard County reported three new deaths.
• Highlands County reported three new deaths.
• Jackson County reported three new deaths.
• Santa Rosa County reported three new deaths.
• St. Johns County reported three new deaths.
• Collier County reported two new deaths.
• Duval County reported two new deaths.
• Charlotte County reported one new death.
• Columbia County reported one new death.
• Hillsborough County reported one new death.
• Indian River County reported one new death.
• Lake County reported one new death.
• Madison County reported one new death.
• Martin County reported one new death.
• Putnam County reported one new death.
• Sarasota County reported one new death.
• Seminole County reported one new death.

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Florida reported a statewide positive test rate of 13.49 percent based on 4,128,584 tests as of Thursday.

The state reported 32,537 total hospitalizations, up from 31,947 a day earlier. That represents an increase of 590 new hospitalizations over the previous day, which is among the highest one-day increases since the pandemic began.

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 140,984 cases of the virus as of Thursday. Nearby Broward County, which includes Fort Lauderdale, reported 64,741 cases. Palm Beach County, which includes Palm Beach, West Palm and Boca Raton, reported 38,208 cases.

Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa, reported 33,428 cases. Orange County, which includes Orlando, reported 32,575 cases.

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

Here is the most recent data available: