Florida coronavirus cases double in 3 days, death toll now at 34

Numbers put out Friday morning by the Department of Health show the positive cases of novel coronavirus cases nearing 3,000, with 2,900 people now testing positive for the virus. Deaths are now at 34.

The number of Florida residents with COVID-19 has risen from 2,359 to 2,765. Miami-Dade County continues to lead with the highest number of cases at 763. Broward has 614, Palm Beach has 194, Hillsborough has 167 and Orange has 156.

DOH has reformatted its dashboard yet again, showing only Florida resident cases, but not the total number of cases in Florida, information which had previously been included there. Spokesman Alberto Moscoso said people need to now go to the COVID-19 website and click on the daily report button, which is below the dashboard button, to view the total number of Florida residents and non-residents who have tested positive.

The number of COVID-19 cases has doubled in the past three days, even as more and more counties have implemented stay-at-home orders, though health officials note such efforts can take a couple of weeks to show results.

Broward County, which issued a stay-at-home order Thursday, is one of the latest communities to do so. Alachua County has ordered all non-essential businesses to close and residents to stay at home. Collier County commissioners have reached out to Lee County leaders about developing a stay at home order in effect region-wide. Miami-Dade also has a stay-at-home order.

Duval County has a work from home order and Leon County has a stay at home order, including a curfew from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. Hillsborough County has a safer at home order that goes into effect Friday night. 

Gov. Ron DeSantis has resisted calls, mainly by Democrats, to implement a statewide stay-at-home order. He has argued that some counties don’t have a single case and many counties have only a few cases.

He has signed several executive orders, including closing bars, nightclubs and dining rooms in restaurants for specified periods of time. Bars and nightclubs are currently set to reopen April 17th unless the order is extended. The dining room closure is set to last through the state of emergency, which expires May 8th.