Jacob Ogles
About one in 10 of the new COVID-19 cases reported in Florida hail from Southwest Florida.
Department of Health data shows 544 new cases within the 10-county region Tuesday. The bulk of those, 199 new cases, hail from populous Lee County.
There, the total number of cases still falls just shy of 4,000. The most populous county in region has a higher number of cases than all but six counties in Florida, but still lags far behind South Florida counties Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach, all places where cases have reached five figures.
As of Wednesday evening, Lee Health said there were 164 COVID-19 cases currently isolated within the hospital group’s facilities. That’s a significant jump from 147 COVID-19 cases isolated as of Tuesday morning But 29% of ICU rooms were still available. About 77% of beds in the system are used right now, with COVID-19 patients filling 14%.
Despite the jump in cases in the region, there was little change in the total number of deaths. Two Collier County residents died since yesterday, and one Charlotte County patient passed away. The reported number of Lee County deaths inexplicably went down by one.
Manatee County was the only other in the region to post more than 100 new cases. There, 119 cases were reported overnight.
In both Manatee and Lee counties, the bulk of deaths have occurred in long-term care facilities like nursing homes. In Manatee, those constitute 86, or 68%, of deaths. In Lee, 109 deaths constitute nearly 74% of all deaths.
By comparison, nursing home and assisted living facility deaths constitute about 52% of all deaths statewide.
Tuesday was the third day in the past month where more than 100 positive were returned in Lee County. Most notably, there were 224 cases reported on June 17, just a week ago.
In Manatee, a rush of cases has been more concentrated, with 605 new cases reported in the last seven days.
The two counties bear certain distinction in the Florida pandemic. The first reported COVID-19 patient in Florida lived in Manatee. The first place a patient died from COVID-19 in Florida, and on the U.S. East Coast, was in Lee.
