Florida Sees 10,000 New Coronavirus Cases, Largest One-Day Spike

TALLAHASSEE, FL — Florida saw more than 10,000 new coronavirus cases Thursday in what is now the largest one-day spike since health officials began tracking the data in March.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez confirmed the death of an 11-year-old boy who has become the youngest person to die of the virus in Florida.

"The death of an 11-year-old boy, reported today by the Florida Department of Health in Miami-Dade County, should send a signal to all of our community that this virus can attack anyone without mercy," Gimenez said Thursday night.

Florida health officials reported 10,109 new cases of the coronavirus Thursday as the state's total positive cases rose to 169,106 from 158,997 over the previous 24-hour period.

The rising number of cases in Florida, and South Florida in particular, prompted a dire warning from CEO Carlos A. Migoya of Miami-based Jackson Health, Florida's largest public health system.

"If we continue to see more infection and more people needing to be hospitalized, in a period of three, four, five, six weeks, we’ll get to a point that we will be way beyond the point that any hospital — or all hospitals — can do this," Migoya told reporters Wednesday.

Miami-Dade is considered the epicenter of Florida's outbreak, with more than 1,000 deaths alone, along with nearby Broward and Palm Beach counties. Jackson said it will limit inpatient surgeries and procedures to emergency and urgent cases starting Monday to make sure beds are available for seriously ill patients, including people suffering from the coronavirus.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has said the median age of people testing positive for the disease over the past two weeks has consistently ranged between 33 to 37.

The overwhelming number of Florida's 67 counties reported a decline in the median age of cases over the past week. Only a handful of counties reported higher median ages. The rest stayed the same, according to a Patch review of data.

Florida's previous one-day record had been set Saturday with 9,585 new cases following a string of records over the past three weeks. State officials suspended the consumption of on-premises alcohol at bars, and a number of Florida counties and municipalities imposed mandatory mask orders. Four South Florida Counties — Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe — all announced plans to close beaches over the Fourth of July holiday weekend.

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The total number of deaths from the new coronavirus in Florida rose to 3,617 from 3,550 a day earlier. State officials also reported another 101 deaths in Florida involving non-Florida residents.

Nineteen Florida counties reported 65 new deaths Thursday. That compares with 46 new deaths Wednesday, 58 new deaths Tuesday, 28 deaths Monday, 29 new deaths Sunday, deaths 24 Saturday, 39 deaths Friday and 46 deaths last Thursday.

Miami-Dade County reported 18 new deaths. Broward County reported nine new deaths. Palm Beach County reported 11 new deaths.

Pinellas County reported eight new deaths. Hillsborough County reported five new deaths.

Collier County reported one new death, as did Duval County, Escambia County, Lake County, Manatee County, Martin County, Monroe County, Okaloosa County, Orange County, Osceola County, Pasco County, Sarasota County, St. Johns County and St. Lucie County.

Health officials reported 15,150 hospitalizations, up from 14,825 hospitalizations over the previous 24-hour period. That represents an increase of 325 new hospitalizations, which is significantly higher than the increase has been in recent weeks.

Miami-Dade reported 40,265 cases of the virus as of Thursday. Nearby Broward County, which includes Fort Lauderdale, reported 17,116 cases. Palm Beach County, which includes Palm Beach and West Palm, reported 14,859 cases.

Those three South Florida counties account for a combined total of 72,400 cases — or about 46 percent of the total cases in the state. The percentage represents a decline from 59 percent as of April 19 but an increase from the 43 percent reported earlier this week as other Florida counties account for a greater share of cases.

Florida had an 8.3 percent positive test rate for the virus Thursday as the number of tests administered in the state surpassed the 2 million mark for a total of 2,033,794. The percentage of positive cases has been increasing for about three weeks.

Hillsborough County, which includes Tampa, reported 12,376 cases. Orange County, which includes Orlando, reported 11,458 cases.

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

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• Hillsborough Officials Reconsider Impact Of Face Mask Order
• Floridians Get Another Extension On Evictions, Foreclosures
• Face Coverings Now Mandatory In Miami Beach
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• Face Coverings Now Mandatory In Sarasota
• Fort Lauderdale, Nearby Communities To Close Beaches On July 4
• New Test Site Opens In St. Pete, Reaches Max Capacity Quickly
• Miami-Area Beaches To Shut Down Again Amid Coronavirus Surge
• Floridians Face 2-Week Quarantine In NY, NJ, Connecticut
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• Miami's Adrienne Arsht Center To Host Presidential Debate
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• Miami's Famed South Beach Reopens With Social Distancing: PHOTOS

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: