Florida confirms 27 deaths overnight from coronavirus

Department of Health officials confirmed 27 deaths from the novel coronavirus overnight Thursday as the number of confirmed cases crossed 8,000.

As of a Thursday morning report, officials have confirmed 8,010 total cases in the state, an increase of 237 over Wednesday’s final tally. And 1,058 people have been hospitalized, up from 990 the day before. The total number of infected people include 293 non-Florida residents tested and isolated in the state.

Some of the newly reported fatalities occurred Wednesday but after the 5 p.m. snapshot of the state’s database. As of the evening report, 101 people had died in the state since Florida’s COVID-19 outbreak began last month.

Officials reported more than 1,000 cases on both Tuesday and Wednesday, but the latter was the first day with more than 1,000 cases confirmed on that day. Two weeks ago, the state had not yet confirmed more than 100 cases in a single day.

Flagler and Lake counties recorded their first deaths from COVID-19. In Flagler, the 72-year-old woman who died had contact with a known case. Two people died in Lake — a 86-year-old male who had contact with a known case and a 74-year-old female who had traveled to Europe.

Eight people died in Miami-Dade County, from ages 44 to 94, raising the death toll there to 19. Now 17 people have died in Broward County, where four people, aged 65 to 94, passed away. Palm Beach County, where 22 people have died, reported no additional fatal cases.

Miami-Dade has 2,448, or three tenths, of the state’s cases. Broward has 1,346 cases and Palm Beach has 630.

Duval County, with 271 cases, has now had seven residents die after three people, all in their 80s, passed away. One, a woman aged 82, had contact with a known positive individual while the sources of the other two’s cases were still unknown. Clay County now has six confirmed deaths among 56 cases after a 92-year-old woman who had contact with a known positive passed away.

In Hillsborough County, an 86-year-old woman who had contact with a known case and a 68-year-old woman who had traveled to Egypt passed away, raising the county’s death toll to five. And in Pinellas County, an 85-year-old man who had contact with a known case was the sixth person to die in the county. Hillsborough has 372 confirmed cases while Pinellas has 239.

An 82-year-old woman was the fifth to die in Orange County and a second person, a 66-year-old woman, died in Osceola County. The origins of both of their cases are unknown. Orange has had the fifth-most total cases in the state, with 502, and Osceola has had 153.

In Sarasota County, two people — a man aged 86 and a woman aged 74 — passed away, raising the death toll there to five among 100 total cases. And in Polk County, where there are 92 confirmed cases, a woman aged 73 who had contact with a known case was the second person to pass away there.

The spike in deaths also occurred as the state prepares to implement Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ stay-at-home order, which starts Friday at 12:01 a.m. The Governor made the announcement Wednesday after resisting calls to implement a statewide lockdown.

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

And despite the national advisory to stay at home and the impending executive order, only parts of the state with fewer cases have seen people change their travel habits yet, according to a New York-based data-crunching consultant. Miami-Dade, Monroe, Orange and Osceola counties received the highest marks for best adherence.

Only seven counties, all in North Florida, have no reported cases now — Dixie, Franklin, Gilchrist, Hamilton, Jefferson, Lafayette, Liberty and Taylor.

At least 78,604 people have been tested in Florida, including at least 1,285 who are awaiting their results. Commercial and hospital labs have conducted most of that testing.

Of the positive results, 849 had traveled, 1,266 had interacted with a confirmed case and 537 had done both. The sources of 5,065 cases are still under investigation.

The chair of the Florida College System Council of Presidents says state lawmakers did not position colleges well to meet the challenge posed by COVID-19. Jim Murdaugh says the state’s colleges received only $22.9 million from lawmakers to raise base funding.

Nationally, there are more than 217,000 confirmed cases and 5,316 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.