Florida crosses 200K COVID-19 cases

More than 200,000 people have tested positive for COVID-19 in Florida as of Sunday morning.

That comes after state health officials reported 10,059 new cases, putting the total number of diagnoses at 200,111. It also marked the third time in the last four days the Department of Health (DOH) has reported more than 10,000 new cases report to report.

It took Florida 114 days to record its first 100,000 COVID-19 cases between March 1 and June 22. It took 13 days to record the second 100,000.

Another 29 residents died, raising the Floridian death toll to 3,731. Overall, 101 non-residents have died in the Sunshine State.

An additional 160 residents were hospitalized, raising the count during the pandemic to 15,895.

The daily percent positivity rate has also trended upward over the past month. For Saturday, the most recent complete day available, the percent positivity rate among people who had not previously tested positive was 15%.

The 10,059 new cases cover Saturday morning to Sunday morning. For Friday only, the state diagnosed 10,059 positive cases, including among 9,999 residents.

Ahead of the Independence Day weekend, Gov. Ron DeSantis encouraged people to celebrate outdoors and to avoid the Three Cs: closed spaces, crowded places and close-contact settings.

“When you’re doing things like Fourth of July, obviously be prudent,” he said. “But you’re much better off, quite frankly, at a beach than you are packing into someone’s home in the air conditioning with this virus. This virus does not like sunlight, heat and humidity.”

The Governor urged that Thursday during a briefing alongside Vice President Mike Pence and the White House Coronavirus Task Force. Thursday also marked the first day the state included 10,000 new cases in a single report.

The Governor 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 last month. For Saturday, the median age of new cases was 36.

In recent days, emergency department visits that mention coughing has declined among people younger than 55. Meanwhile, that count has increased slightly among folks 55 and older.

With 101 fewer people in adult ICUs at the time of publication, 4,739 of the state’s 6,033 adult ICU beds are filled, leaving 21.5% available.

Officials have tested 2.2 million people for COVID-19 in the state, including 69,993 individuals Saturday. The department counted 85,080 new tests Friday, the most in a single day.

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

DOH reported 2,282 new cases in Miami-Dade County, where now 47,011 have tested positive. Broward County added 1,664 cases to reach 21,239 and Palm Beach County has 16,836 overall, including 687 more in Sunday’s report.

Hillsborough County has 14,336 confirmed cases after receiving 636 new positives. And cases in Pinellas County are also on the rise with 8,533 total, an increase of 417.

Orange County, another resurgent county, now has 14,032 cases after counting 770 new positives.

Duval County reports 9,146 total cases, an increase of 532.

Lee County shows 7,498 cases, a jump of 283 cases. And Collier County had an increase of 139 cases to hit 5,019 overall.

Polk County surpassed Collier County Saturday and added another 290 diagnoses Sunday for a total of 5,196.

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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.