Coronavirus surge: Officials report 2.5K new cases as death toll crosses 3K

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State health officials reported a record 2,581 new coronavirus cases Saturday and 49 fatalities, pushing the death toll across 3,000.

The Department of Health (DOH) has diagnosed 73,552 total individuals with COVID-19, including 1,963 non-Floridians who tested positive in the state. Of the 3,016 fatalities, 2,925 were residents.

Additionally, 12,155 people have now been hospitalized after officials reported 169 more cases in hospitals.

Saturday marked the first time DOH reported more than 2,000 cases between reports. Saturday’s version of the daily report, which gives a snapshot of the state’s cases as of 10 a.m., showed 2,372 new cases for Friday.

Previously the record number of new cases in the 24 hours between reports was 1,902, reached Friday, and 1,663 for one calendar day, achieved Wednesday.

Friday’s new cases also extend the streak of more than 1,000 daily new coronavirus cases to eleven straight days.

The jump in new cases Friday came without a significant increase in the number tests received. DOH received tests for 39,815 individuals Friday. That’s fewer than the number of results received a week ago (57,074) and lower than the peak of 77,934 tests received.

The five-day average for new positive tests has gone steadily upward in the past two weeks. On May 29, the five-day average was 716, and it topped 1,000 on June 5. As of Saturday’s count, the five-day average is 1,612.

Epidemiologists use five-day averages to eliminate spikes caused by a batch of reports.

Phase Two of the state’s three-part reopening process began a week ago.

Gov. Ron DeSantis tried to assuage concerns about the growing number of cases this week. In recent weeks, he and Division of Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz have said the demand for tests falls short of the state’s expanded testing apparatus.

“Testing more is good. It’s more convenient than ever before, but don’t mistake identifying more cases for thinking that there are more cases one day compared to two months ago,” the Governor said Monday.

“In March, I was literally on the phone directing 100 swabs at a time to different hospitals because they were so scarce,” he added Friday. “Well now, we can order as many swabs as you want. That whole supply chain has really opened, so you have the ability to do some of that, and that does mean that you’re testing a lot of people that are not symptomatic.”

DeSantis also says hospitals haven’t seen an influx in the number of hospitalizations from the disease. Even with hospitals again taking patients for elective surgeries, between 25 and 30 percent of hospital beds across the state still sit empty.

“Part of that is because our COVID patients have been pretty stable over the past six weeks, but part of it is you don’t have as many people going to be able to get treatment that they should be getting,” he said. “Maybe that’s still lingering fear of going to the hospital, but our message has been: take care of yourself.”

The Governor also noted officials haven’t seen outbreaks after protests over the George Floyd’s death. A video showing a White Minneapolis police officer place his knee on the unarmed Black man sparked national and global protests over police brutality the last two weeks.

“I think the places that had the biggest demonstrations were Orlando and Tampa, so they are looking at that, but as of now, you have not seen evidence that that has really led to any type of thing,” DeSantis said. “In fact, in Florida, we’re seeing it’s the close, lengthy contact in the workplace like in the agriculture that’s really driving it, or in long-term care facilities.”

But both Orange and Hillsborough counties show an increasing number of COVID-19 cases with new cases topping 100 there between Wednesday and Friday.

In Orange County, the average of new cases was about 40 the first five days of June. The five-day average is now 106. Hillsborough County’s average jumped from about 75 to 121 in the same period.

South Florida’s Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties still remain the state’s largest hot spots of the virus since DOH officials confirmed the first two Florida cases three months ago. Those counties did not join the state’s 64 other counties in entering the Phase Two reopening.

Since Friday’s report, 761 people in Miami-Dade County have tested positive, raising the overall COVID-19 caseload there to 21,633 people. The jump was double the amount of new cases the county has seen in recent weeks. Thirteen of the 49 people who died statewide were tied to Miami-Dade, raising the death toll there to 837.

Broward County registered 275 new cases, raising its total to 8,864. Seven more people — now 378 total — died there. Palm Beach County is approaching Broward’s count with 8,442 cases after DOH showed 233 new reports and nine fatalities, now 438 overall.

Hillsborough County on Wednesday became the fourth county with 3,000 cases, with 3,504 overall. Four other counties have more than 2,000 COVID-19 cases: Orange with 2,937, Lee with 2,634, Collier with 2,435 and Pinellas with 2,103. Pinellas joined that cohort Saturday after surpassing Duval Friday. Four more have upward of 1,000 cases: Duval with 1,961, Polk with 1,414, Manatee with 1,353 and Martin with 1,134. Martin crossed the 1,000-mark Thursday.

Escambia County is the next-closest to eclipse 1,000 cases with 961 total.

The state has given 1.4 million people diagnostic tests and 179,000 people antibody tests, which shows whether someone’s immune system has fended off the virus. Of those people tested, fewer than 8,000 show antibodies.