Officials report 927 new coronavirus cases, 35 deaths Saturday

Nasal tests may not be as accurate as you'd like.

State health officials reported 927 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 35 deaths related to the virus Saturday.

As of the latest report, 55,424 people have tested positive for COVID-19, and 2,530 people have died in the state, including 2,447 Florida residents. With 132 more hospitalizations reported since Friday’s Department of Health (DOH) report, 10,113 Floridians and 262 non-residents have been hospitalized.

The department has received test results for 995,886 individuals after results for 16,260 people came in Friday. Florida has received as many as 77,934 individuals’ results in a single day, but Gov. Ron DeSantis and Division of Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz say the demand for tests doesn’t match the state’s expanding testing apparatus.

Polk County became the state’s 11th county with more than 1,000 cases Saturday, now with 1,005, an increase of 28. But South Florida’s Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties still remain the state’s largest hot spots of the virus.

Since Friday’s report, 185 people in Miami-Dade County have tested positive, raising the overall COVID-19 caseload there to 17,826 people. Of the 35 deaths statewide, 15 were tied to the county, raising its death toll to 711.

Broward County registered 92 new cases, raising its total to 7,067, and the death toll rose to 334 after five new people were confirmed dead. Palm Beach County now has 5,898 cases after DOH showed 133 new reports and three deaths, now with 350 total.

The seven other counties with more than 1,000 COVID-19 cases are Hillsborough with 2,129, Orange with 1,976, Lee with 1,894, Duval with 1,608, Collier with 1,514, Pinellas with 1,262 and Manatee with 1,037.

Coinciding with the hurricane preparedness tax holiday, DeSantis on Friday announced that Home Depot and Publix would be opening a combined six testing sites in their parking lots as a convenient option for shoppers to get tested without interrupting their daily lives.

“Accessible COVID-19 testing statewide has been a top priority of my administration during the state’s response to COVID-19,” the Governor said. “Our private-sector partners have been a vital component of the state’s COVID-19 response.”