More than 500 COVID-19 deaths in Florida as officials confirm 23 (or more) overnight

The novel coronavirus has taken the lives of more than 500 Floridians as the state continues approaching its expected peak of the pandemic.

State health officials also added 348 confirmed cases of COVID-19 to the state’s tally, raising the state’s caseload to 21,367, including 630 non-Florida residents. And with 68 more people hospitalized with the disease, 2,909 Floridians have been sent to the hospital.

While the Department of Health (DOH) now counts 524 fatalities, up 25 from Monday evening, the Tuesday morning report only highlighted 23 of those as new cases. Those cases were a Miami-Dade County woman who was removed from the state’s list of deaths Thursday and a Suwannee County male.

South Florida has the largest concentration of COVID-19 in the state, with Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties carrying 59% of all cases statewide. Miami-Dade has 7,555, up from 7,459 Monday, Broward has 3,243, up from 3,177, and Palm Beach has 1,727, up from 1,704.

Orange County, now with 1,033 cases, is the only county outside of South Florida with more than 1,000 coronavirus cases.

Miami-Dade County also leads the state with 125 fatalities. The next-closest county is Palm Beach with 93.

In long-term care facilities, 1,135 residents and staff have now tested positive as the state ramps up its efforts to prevent the virus’ spread there. The elderly and people with underlying medical conditions are more susceptible to severe cases.

DOH now has the results of 204,138 people, an increase of 4,371 since Monday evening. Another 1,275 people who were tested by department-coordinated labs await their results, but thousands more results conducted by private labs are likely outstanding.

On Monday, Surgeon General Scott Rivkees told reporters the state was “essentially at a plateau” in the number of new COVID-19 cases. Since April 4, the state has confirmed no more than 1,200 cases each day after recording 1,307 on April 3.

And an update to an influential coronavirus model shows a slightly higher and later peak of the state’s daily deaths compared to the model’s latest prediction, but still down from a week ago.