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State health officials reported an additional 9,585 COVID-19 diagnoses Saturday morning, a new single-day record that pushes the total count of confirmed cases to 132,545.
Another 24 Florida residents died since Friday’s report, raising the death toll to 3,366. And one non-Floridian died, lifting the count of dead visitors to 99.
Friday’s report included 8,942 new cases and was the previous record for newly-reported cases.
Officials counted 149 new hospitalizations with the virus, lifting the total count of resident hospitalizations to 14,136.
According to the latest report, the Department of Health (DOH) on Friday also received results from a record 78,345 individuals, which could be revised below the previous record of 77,934 in the coming days. But unlike last time the state saw that amount of testing, it looks like a new trend rather than an outlier caused by a data dump.
On Thursday, the department received tests from 71,396 individuals, which itself followed 57,904 tested individuals on Wednesday. The percent positivity has maintained a high rate in that time as well.
The percent positivity rate for new cases Wednesday, Thursday and Friday was 8.9%, 12.9% and 12.8% respectively, all up from when the state saw about 3% of tests return positive in May.
In total, 1.8 million people have been tested for COVID-19 in Florida.
At the start of the month, the state made headlines for hitting 1,000 new cases over consecutive days. But as new cases have quadrupled in the past two weeks and Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ rhetoric has shifted, the May lull in COVID-19 is well in the past.
The latest bout has mostly affected young Floridians, the Governor says, partially why the state hasn’t seen a similar influx in hospitalizations. The median age of new cases has hovered in the early to mid 30’s in the past week, 34 on Friday.
“Not huge clinical consequences, but in terms of spread and in terms of some of the vulnerable populations eventually seeping in there, certainly a cause for concern,” he told reporters in Tallahassee Saturday.
Even as cases continued to rise, DeSantis has spent the last couple weeks saying Florida won’t be rolling back any of its reopening plans. And on Thursday, he suggested Florida would take a slower path toward reopening.
But Friday morning, Department of Business and Professional Regulation Secretary Halsey Beshears announced his department suspended the consumption of alcohol at bars statewide, a reversal of the state’s reopening plan. Patrons could still take their drinks to go, and Beshears’ order didn’t touch on restaurants.
He followed those tweets Saturday with another pair meant to console upset business owners feeling the “pain” from his order.
“We must forcefully flatten the curve. This decision was not a knee jerk reaction, nor was it made lightly, but based on evidence and the correlation in spikes after phase 2 reopening. We will get it right, then get people back to work ASAP,” he said.
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. Bars opened under Phase Two, as did movie theaters, but some chains like AMC are still not opening locations.
New cases never fully subsided in the South Florida hot spots, but have also increased there in recent weeks. DOH reported 1,366 new cases in Miami-Dade County, where now 31,562 have tested positive.
Broward County added 726 cases to reach 14,046 and Palm Beach County has 12,928 overall, including 430 more in Saturday’s report.
Hillsborough County, quickly en route to 10,000 cases, now has 9,130 after receiving 1,112 new positives. Cases in Pinellas County are also on the rise with 5,713 total, an increase of 614.
Orange County, another resurgent county, added 989 new cases to push its total to 8,837.
4 comments
Marty mozer
June 27, 2020 at 12:46 pm
When is FLA Guv, our US senators and congress men and women going to demand the White House test ALL passengers, crew, airport workers before they set foot into an airport For the Many obvious reasons. Hello…what are they waiting for?
Any/ ALL persons going on an airplane needs to test negative before they board. A National database with test results should be in place and available to TSA staff at airport. feds need to come up with new Infectious control guidelines for all aircraft To follow sanitation protocols After each flight . If we allow people to fly all over the world, in and out of our airports we will never get to the other side of this pandemic.
Posted by a former Republican state governors office manager and Emergency Management Administrator
martin
June 27, 2020 at 3:46 pm
The only people scared are the people in the media who are terrified that the people aren’t afraid enough anymore. Florida is a new “hotspot” of infection, but here are the real numbers from NPR (hardly a conservative leaning source): On May 25th the rolling 7-day average for new cases was 800 per day. It currently stands at over 4,000 per day, and climbing. However, on May 25th the rolling 7-day average of Covid-19 deaths was 40/day, but it has steadily decreased to a current rate of 17/day. Note that the divergence began 5 weeks ago, which rules out deaths just naturally lagging exposures. The fatality rate is actually dropping like a rock, and if the CDC’s latest estimates are correct, Covid-19 actually has a lower mortality rate than many strains of flu.
This could be because of a combination of reasons. New cases are predominantly happening in younger people who are much more resistant. Yes, some younger people will die, but a few young people get pneumonia and die of the common cold every year, too.
Testing has also been ramped up. If you test more people you’re gonna confirm more cases. When testing began, you had to be both symptomatic AND have known exposure to a confirmed case, and you might still not gotten approved for testing. Now you can get tested if you just suspect you might have been exposed. I know, I’m currently under ‘Voluntary’ quarantine awaiting test results from a test I requested after possible exposure. I’m not sure how voluntary that order actually is, and have no burning desire to find out. I’ll be a good boy and play by the rules.
Lastly, viruses tend to grow less lethal over time. Killing off hosts too efficiently is a negative evolutionary trait for a virus. This is why Yersinia Pestes, the infamous Black Death Plague, became less lethal over time. The initial outbreaks in Europe saw mortality rates of 80-95%, based on contemporary records, and killed between a third and a half of the total population. By the end it had dropped to about 25%. Plague is still around, by the way. A few people in the American West get it every year or so, yet it barely rates a single line of news coverage.
Marty Mozer
June 27, 2020 at 7:46 pm
Well, as a Republican voter I certainly hope you are right. If not hand the Dems the White House in November and next gubernatorial cycle Andrew Gilliam and a state income tax will be coming our way.
We barely dodged that bullet last cycle
Hester
June 27, 2020 at 3:49 pm
pparently the media is here to scare you. Facts:The CDC recently revised its death rate estimate down to just 0.4 percent.
One percent of counties in the country account for more than half of all Covid-19 deaths nationally.
Ten percent of counties account for more than 90 percent of all deaths.
Roughly 40 percent of the counties in the country haven’t experienced a single coronavirus death.
42 percent of all coronavirus deaths have come in nursing homes.
In many states, nursing homes and assisted living facilities account for far more than half of all deaths—81 percent in Minnesota and 70 percent in Ohio.
More than 80 percent of all Covid-19 deaths are among those over 65 years old.
Those aged under 55 account for just seven percent of all Covid-19 deaths.
If you are 34 years old or younger, your probability of dying from Covid-19 as of June 3rd was 0.0005 percent.
The overwhelming majority of deaths are among those with at least one other underlying medical condition. For 7% of the deaths, Covid-19 was the only cause mentioned.
Daily Florida deaths continue to fall—dropping from 51 per day to 34 per day over the last month, according to the 7-day moving average
A sizeable portion of Arizona cases have occurred on Indian reservations.
Most ICU admissions—in some cases 75 percent or more—aren’t Covid-related.
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