COVID-19 epidemic explodes across Orlando area

Detail from a heat map generated by Orange County showing COVID-19 cases as of Tuesday, June 23.

The coronavirus epidemic showed signs of exploding across all of Central Florida Friday as the latest report displayed record numbers of new cases in every county including an astonishing 1,062 new cases in Orange County.

The latest numbers, provided in the daily report issued Friday by the Florida Department of Health, showed a 46% increase in daily new case counts for the six-county region over the record set Thursday, which was, in turn, a 22% increase from the record set the day before. The region reported 1,807 newly-identified cases Friday There had never been more than 750 for the region before Wednesday.

The report shows another significant increase in testing, but also shows marked increases in positive-test results.

Statewide, Florida again shattered the daily record of newly reported COVID-19 cases with 8,942 new diagnoses Friday. In total, 122,960 people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in the Sunshine State.

Health authorities tapped into a major outbreak in Osceola County. Test results returned on Thursday, accounted for in Friday’s state report, show 23% of the people tested were positive for COVID-19.

In Orange County, the 1,062 cases added to the county’s COVID-19 caseload broke the record of 730 set the day before. That broke the record of 554 set the day before that.

In Seminole County, health officials logged 198 new cases. In Osceola County, 164 new cases were logged; in Brevard County, 148; in Volusia County, 141. Even in Lake County, which had been lagging the region’s trends the past couple of weeks, 94 new cases were reported Friday. None of the counties had ever seen a day so bad.

In Orange County, 18% of the 4,836 test results that came in Thursday were positive for the COVID-19 virus. Orange now has seen 7,848 cases of the virus since it first appeared in Florida March. Nearly half of those cases, 46%, have been identified just in the past seven days.

In Seminole County, 15% of the 1,149 new test results were positive. Seminole now has recorded 1,966 cases, with 44% coming in the past week.

In Volusia County, 10% of 1,296 new tests came back positive. Volusia now has recorded 1,605 cases since March, with 30% appearing in the past seven days.

In Osceola County, 23% of 542 people tested were positive for COVID-19. That brings the county’s caseload to 1,485, with 35% of those cases appearing in the past week.

In Brevard County, just 8% of the 1,620 test results came back positive. That was enough to identify 148 new cases, bringing the county’s total to 1,297 over time. Of those, 34% have appeared in the past week.

In Lake County, 10% of 798 test results came back positive. Lake is now poised to become the sixth county in the six-county Central Florida region to surpass the 1,000 mark. Through Friday’s report, there have been 975 cases, with a third of those being revealed in the past week.