Scott Powers
Orange County and Central Florida showed upticks in confirmed new COVID-19 cases, with Orange adding 46 new cases Friday morning.
It marked the second consecutive day that Orange County saw more than 35 new cases, and the second consecutive day that the six-county Central Florida region saw more than 100 new cases, after something of a slowdown in reported infections for several days earlier in the week, according to reports from the Florida Department of Health.
On Thursday Orange County reported 38 new cases, compared with just 16 and 18 on on the previous two days.
Orange County now has 1,135 confirmed cases of COVID-19, still the fourth-highest total in the state behind Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.
Across Central Florida, numbers also went up significantly in Osceola County, which reported 14 new cases Thursday and 21 on Friday for a total of 388; Seminole County, which reported 19 new cases on Thursday and ten on Friday for a total of 310; and Brevard County, which report 23 new cases Thursday and 15 on Friday, for a total of 202.
Brevard County’s Thursday’s increase of 23 cases was its highest one-day total to date.
Volusia County saw a spike on Thursday with 24 new cases, also it biggest one-day case increase to date, but dropped off to just eight new cases Friday. Lake County also saw a spike of 14 new cases on Thursday, but reported just three on Friday.
Central Florida as a region had 132 new cases Thursday and 103 on Friday.
For each of the counties and the region, the late-week upticks show that the pattern of confirmed new cases has been somewhat erratic. As recently as Monday Orange had 75 new cases and Central Florida 138. But on most days in the past week Orange had fewer than 30 new cases, and Central Florida fewer than 75.
Orange County has 187 COVID-19 hospitalizations, while Osceola has 115, Seminole 70, Volusia 56, Lake, 50, and Brevard 41.
A total of 50 people have died in Central Florida from COVID-19, including 21 in Orange County. The only death since Thursday morning was a 77-year-old Brevard County woman who first was diagnosed Wednesday.
