6 deaths, 634 coronavirus cases overnight in Florida

State officials reported an additional 634 coronavirus cases and six deaths overnight Tuesday, raising the death toll to 77 and the total cases to 6,338.

The Department of Health’s tally includes 6,096 Floridians. At least 772 people have been hospitalized, up from 715 Monday night.

Previously, officials reported 11 deaths involving the novel coronavirus Monday, raising Florida’s death toll to 71. Overall, officials reported 754 new cases Monday after confirming 912 Sunday.

Glades and Polk counties recorded their first deaths Tuesday. Both men, 89 and 60 respectively, had not traveled but had contact with a known case.

Two of the latest reported deceased hailed from Miami-Dade County — a 69-year-old male who had neither traveled nor interacted with a known infected person and a 67-year-old male who had contact with a known case. A 91-year-old male was Palm Beach County’s 11th death, and Hillsborough County’s third fatality was a 92-year-old female.

Federal, state, hospital-based and commercial labs tested 5,100 additional individuals, raising the total number of those tested to 61,802. Results for at least 1,163 individuals are still pending.

Most of the state’s positive coronavirus cases are in South Florida, but the Tampa Bay and Orlando areas have become growing hot spots of the virus. Gov. Ron DeSantis has said the first COVID-19 cases could have been in Florida weeks before the first case was confirmed this month and acknowledges community spread is underway in parts of the state.

Miami-Dade County, home to three-tenths of the state’s confirmed cases, added 225 cases overnight Tuesday to raise its total to 1,926 individuals infected. Broward County now has 1,209 confirmed cases after adding 72 and Palm Beach County reached 514 cases.

The Division of Emergency Management opened a drive-thru testing site in Palm Beach County Tuesday at the FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches. But according to Palm Beach County Mayor Dave Kerner, all appointments for the site are filled through Thursday.

Miami became the first city Tuesday to reach 1,000 confirmed residents infected with the virus, now with 1,047. Hollywood has the next-most number of cases with 405.

DeSantis announced a safer-at-home order for Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties during a press conference Monday at a Miami Gardens testing site. The Governor is still reluctant to issue a statewide approach, but several communities have already implemented their own sheltering order variations.

Orange County has 363 confirmed coronavirus cases, up from 300, and Hillsborough County added 19 cases to reach 291 total. Duval County passed Lee County as the county with the next-most confirmed cases with 198 to Lee’s 185.

By May 3, perhaps 174 Floridians could be dying every day from COVID-19, according to the modeling done by the The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, an independent population health research center at the University of Washington.

By the end of summer, 6,766 Floridians could have died from COVID-19, according to the institute’s model. Only New York is projected to have more coronavirus-related deaths.