Staff Reports
State health officials have confirmed 44,138 cases of COVID-19 after including 928 new cases in a Friday report.
Department of Health (DOH) data shows that at least 1,991 Florida residents and people visiting the state have died after contracting the novel coronavirus. That update comes after the department confirmed 42 resident deaths, now 1,917 total, and one non-resident death since Thursday’s report.
Another 210 residents have been hospitalized with COVID-19, raising the total count to 8,203, including 7,959 residents. There were no additional hospitalized non-residents reported Friday.
Earlier in the afternoon, Gov. Ron DeSantis outlined a “Full Phase One” reopening beginning Monday that would let restaurants seat up to 50% of their capacity with retail and museums also matching the 50% cap. Gyms will also reopen.
On Thursday, DeSantis cleared Miami-Dade and Broward counties to join the rest of the state in Phase One on Monday, as he did with Palm Beach County last week. South Florida has been the state’s COVID-19 hot spot throughout the pandemic.
In Miami-Dade County, DOH reports 15,011 cases, an increase from Thursday’s 14,742 cases. Now 557 people have died there — including 548 residents — up from 544 total deaths previously.
In Broward County, the department reports 6,133 cases, up from 6,057. The death toll rose to 293 people, including 272 residents, up from 288 the day before.
DOH confirmed the deaths of another 30 residents and staff of nursing homes and long-term care facilities, where now 844 people have died. Now 501 facilities have active cases of the virus.
The state received a record 23,904 COVID-19 diagnostic tests Monday. On Friday, the state received 21,812 results, raising the total number of tested individuals to 629,895.
Another 1,409 people await results from DOH-coordinated labs. But thousands more samples unknown to the department are likely pending results in private labs.
After dropping to a low of 1.83% positivity last week and 2.04% Sunday among people who had never before tested positive, that percentage Tuesday jumped up to 5.24%, still down from the 10% positivity when the state began tracking the metric. On Thursday, that percentage was down to 4.02%, regressing back toward the new mean.
