9.5K new COVID-19 cases reported as Florida enters July Fourth weekend

As Florida enters the Fourth of July weekend, the state is finishing week that has seen that has seen more COVID-19 diagnoses per day than any week prior.

State health officials confirmed 9,488 new COVID-19 cases since Thursday morning, when officials reported more than 10,000 new cases for the first time. With Friday’s update, the state shows 178,594 total confirmed cases, including among 175,718 Florida residents.

Another 67 residents died, raising those death tolls to 3,684. Overall, 101 non-residents have died in the Sunshine State.

An additional 341 residents were hospitalized, also a jump over recent weeks, raising the count during the pandemic to 15,491.

The daily percent positivity rate has also trended upward over the past two weeks. For Thursday, the most recent complete day available, the percent positivity rate among people who had not previously tested positive was 14.9%.

The 9,488 new cases cover Thursday morning to Friday morning. For Thursday only, the state diagnosed 11,517 positive cases, including among 9,478 residents.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has also said the pandemic’s growth is mostly, if not exclusively, limited to young Floridians. The median age of new cases plummeted from the 50s to the early and mid-30s in the last few weeks, staying at 37 Thursday.

With 148 fewer people in adult ICUs at the time of publication, 4,869 of the state’s 6,124 adult ICU beds are filled, leaving 20% available. That’s a lower percentage over recent weeks, but greater availability than the state had before the pandemic.

In recent days, the state has been adding ICU beds.

Officials have tested 2 million people for COVID-19 in the state, including 67,091 individuals Thursday, down slightly from the day before.

While South Florida remains the largest hot spot, cases are also growing in Central Florida, Southwest Florida and the Jacksonville area.

___

Editor’s note on methodology: The Florida Department of Health releases new data every morning around 10:45 a.m. The total number reported in those daily reports include the previous day’s totals as well as the most up to date data as of about 9:30 a.m.

Florida Politics uses the report-over-report increase to document the number of new cases each day because it represents the most up-to-date data available. Some of the more specific data, including positivity rates and demographics, considers a different data set that includes only cases reported the previous day.

This is important to note because the DOH report lists different daily totals than our methodology to show day-over-day trends. Their numbers do not include non-residents who tested positive in the state and they only include single-day data, therefore some data in the DOH report may appear lower than what we report.

Our methodology was established based on careful consideration among our editorial staff to capture both the most recent and accurate trends.