State reports more than 4K positive COVID-19 cases for the first time

For the first time this pandemic, state health officials reported more than 4,000 new COVID-19 cases Saturday.

The Department of Health (DOH) tallied 4,049 new cases, raising the overall number of diagnoses to 93,797. And 40 Floridians died, raising the death toll among residents to 3,144. At least 93 non-Floridians have died in the state.

Another 165 Floridians were hospitalized for a total now of 12,939. At least 288 non-residents have also been hospitalized in the state.

At the current rate of growth, the Sunshine State will cross 100,000 COVID-19 cases on Monday.

Gov. Ron DeSantis changed his tone Friday on the growth of new cases. After previously attributing the rise to increased testing or migrant farmers and prison inmates, the Governor acknowledged that a rise in new cases, particularly among young adults. The prior factors are still at play, but don’t comprise the whole picture, he added.

“At the same time, we have to be honest and say it’s skewing younger, but it’s also escalating in terms of the positivity, especially in that community,” DeSantis told reporters.

The positivity rate among possibly new cases was 12.4% Friday, the highest that rate has been since the state first reported that count in late April. Two weeks ago, that percentage was 2.6%.

Over the last couple weeks, health officials have observed a drastic drop in the median age of those testing positive from the 50s to 37 last week. Several of the driving counties of the virus had median ages in the low 30s, even reaching 26 in Seminole County.

“I think that we’ve started to see some erosion in the social distancing from probably some of the younger population,” DeSantis said, adding that DOH would release public service announcements on hygiene.

Those cases haven’t resulted in a spike in hospitalizations yet, but the state’s most populous counties have seen a growing number of weekly hospital visits for flu-like and COVID-like illnesses, another metric used to determine the state’s reopening progress.

During a Tuesday press conference, DeSantis told reporters that “we’re not rolling back” reopening progress. Since June 5, Florida has been in Phase Two of three, which includes allowing 100% capacity at retailers and mass gatherings of 50 or less. It also allows bars and movie theaters to reopen, but some chains like AMC are still not opening locations.

About 1.6 million people, including 34,392 Friday, have been tested for the novel coronavirus in Florida. The state and public and private partners have opened testing facilities across the hardest-hit parts of the state that are available to anyone, regardless of age or symptoms, a stark change from the early days of the pandemic.

Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, which have not entered Phase Two with the rest of the state, are still the main hot spots for the virus. But the Tampa Bay and Orlando areas are seeing a resurgence of cases.

DOH shows 25,080 cases for Miami-Dade County, 704 more than on Friday. and Broward County added 389 cases to reach 10,837. Palm Beach County continued to approach Broward with 390 new cases, now with 10,506 overall.

Hillsborough County crossed 5,000 cases, now with 5,319 after recording 337 new positives. Orange County has 4,569 total cases, with 295 new reports.