More than 900 new COVID-19 reported in Florida Tuesday

State health officials confirmed 941 cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, raising the total tally of known infections to 41,923.

Since Monday’s report, the Department of Health (DOH) confirmed 44 deaths, raising the death toll during the pandemic to 1,849, including 70 non-residents. Another 194 Floridians and two non-Floridians were hospitalized with the disease, raising the total hospitalization count to 7,654.

In long-term care facilities, DOH confirmed the deaths of 31 residents and staff. Now 745 people with connections to those have died.

Miami-Dade and Broward counties remain under lockdown until Gov. Ron DeSantis clears them for Phase One, as he did with Palm Beach County before it reopened Monday. South Florida has been the state’s COVID-19 hot spot throughout the pandemic.

In Miami-Dade, DOH reported 385 cases, an increase from Monday’s 14,167 cases. The county had 15 of the state’s fatalities, raising the death toll there to 505. The death toll remains 258 in Broward, where the state has confirmed 5,973 cases, up from 5,882 Monday.

In Palm Beach, where 245 Floridians have died, an increase of seven, officials have confirmed 4,093 cases, an increase from 3,889.

Orange, Hillsborough, Lee and Duval counties have also long-since crossed 1,000 cases while Pinellas County approaches that mark. Each of the state’s 67 counties are home to Floridians who have been diagnosed with the disease.

DeSantis has highlighted Orange County, with 1,537 cases, Hillsborough County, with 1,473, and Duval County, with 1,186, as the state’s examples of growing hot spots that were stamped out. Lee County had 1,317 cases as of Sunday.

The state received a record number of 23,912 COVID-19 diagnostic tests Monday, raising the total of tested individuals to 580,316. Another 1,064 people wait results from DOH-coordinated labs. But thousands more samples unknown to the department are likely pending results in private labs.

Among people who had never before tested positive, 2.89% returned positive Monday. That’s in line with the downward trend from 5% two weeks ago and 10% when the state started displaying the metric.