26,314 FL Coronavirus Cases; Reopen Task Force Set To Begin Talks

TALLAHASSEE, FL — The number of coronavirus cases in Florida rose to 26,314 on Sunday as state officials prepare for the first week of meetings of the governor's new task force on reopening the state.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the task force will be announced Monday and will include business leaders, industry representatives and elected officials. He said the task force will develop short-term, medium-term and long-term reopening plans.

"They’re going to meet telephonically every day this week on the short- term strategy and they’re going to provide recommendations for me by the end of the week," DeSantis said Saturday. "We want to see our people back to work for the long haul and we want to continue with Florida's economic development strategy. We had a lot of great irons in the fire before this hit and we want to be able to get that back going forward."

The number of deaths in Florida from the virus climbed to 774 on Sunday night, up from 748 the previous night.

Palm Beach County reported seven new deaths while Clay County reported two deaths on Sunday. Miami-Dade County reported nine new deaths. Indian River County reported one new death as did and Seminole County.

Okaloosa County reported its second and third deaths. Lee County reported two more deaths as did St. Lucie County.

Sunday night's state coronavirus total represents an increase of 822 confirmed cases over the previous 24-hour period.

There were a total of 3,813 hospitalizations from the virus in Florida as of Sunday night. The state had a 10.1 percent positive test rate out of total 262,495 tests unchanged from Saturday night.

Miami-Dade reported 9,354 cases as of Sunday, more than any Florida County. Broward County, which includes Fort Lauderdale, reported 3,971 cases. Palm Beach County, which includes West Palm Beach, reported 2,170 cases.

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Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa, reported 960cases as of Sunday. Orange County, which includes Orlando, reported 1,198 cases.

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In an attempt to provide as much information to our readers as possible, Patch is publishing a 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.

Patch is updating this data twice each day as available from the Florida Department of Health. Here is the most recent data: