State health officials report 811 new COVID-19 cases, 44 deaths Tuesday

The Department of Health confirmed 811 cases of the novel coronavirus and 44 deaths tied to the outbreak on Tuesday, a continued decline in the daily confirmed number of COVID-19 cases

With the new cases, 27,869 people in the state have tested positive and 867 Floridians have died. Additionally, 4,226 Floridians have been hospitalized, up from 4,000 in Monday’s report.

Of the 44 deaths reported Tuesday, 16 were included in the morning report. Alachua County confirmed its first fatality.

After rising throughout the month of March, the number of new cases confirmed each day has turned downward after peaking at 1,308 on April 3. Surgeon General Scott Rivkees has described the number of new cases as “essentially at a plateau.”

And on Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis took to Fox and Friends saying “Florida’s flattened the curve.” In a later press conference, he criticized the media for publishing predictions that Florida’s hospitals would crumble under the caseload.

“Those predictions were made time and time and time again, and they were wrong,” he said. “We did not go the way of Italy. We did not go the way of New York City.”

The Governor said it wasn’t criticism, rather, he was pushing back against “a narrative created that Florida is about to be capsized by a wave of sick people.”

In nursing homes and assisted living facilities, 2,153 residents and staff have tested positive, an increase of 159 since Monday. Of those, 18 residents and staff at longterm care facilities have died, raising the death toll to 222.

Florida and some southeastern states — Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee — are working on a coordinated regional response, as Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp takes the lead on business reopening. DeSantis said Florida will “thread the needle” within the state with South Florida being the hardest hit.

In Miami-Dade County, 10,056 people have tested positive and 233 have died, up from 9,657 diagnoses and 215 deaths as of Monday night. Broward County has had 4,168 cases, up from 4,078, and 126 deaths, up from 122. Palm Beach County has 2,320 cases, up from 2,260, and 131 fatalities, also up from 122.

Together, those counties make up 59% of the confirmed cases and 57% of the deaths.

Earlier Tuesday, leaders from the “most restricted industries” met to discuss solutions to reopen the state and made the case for a swift opening with clear guidelines. The broader executive committee met for the first time Monday and discussed the role testing could play in lifting the confidence of Floridians.

The department now has the results of 282,942 individuals tested in the state. Another 1,264 await their results from department-coordinated labs, though thousands more likely have tests pending in private labs that don’t report until results come in.