New cases hit older demographics as state reports 7,361 new infections

The median age of new COVID-19 cases reached 40 Monday, the highest median age since state health officials began reporting that metric daily.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has pointed to the median age metric to show that the state is keeping at-risk demographics safe. Two weeks ago, half of the new cases were in people 33 and younger, but has since been on the rise.

After the median age from the 50s to the early and mid-30s over the course of the second wave — and after the Governor began referring to that shifting demographic — state health officials began including the count in its morning reports. Monday’s median age is the highest since the state began reporting it in mid-June.

But while the median age is still down from earlier in the pandemic, the rising median age highlights that older Floridians are testing positive at a faster rate.

With 7,361 new diagnoses since Monday morning, 213,794 people have tested positive for COVID-19 as of Tuesday morning’s update.

Another 63 residents died, an increase over recent weeks, but possibly attributed to a slowdown in reporting that occurs over weekends. In total, 3,841 Floridians have died, as have 102 non-residents in the state.

An additional 380 residents were hospitalized, raising the count during the pandemic to 16,425.

The 7,361 new cases cover Monday morning to Tuesday morning. For Monday only, the state diagnosed 9,369 positive cases, including among 7,361 residents.

Florida crossed 200,000 overall cases Sunday. It took the Sunshine State 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.

While the number of cases may be down from the record 11,458 new cases state health officials reported on the Fourth of July, it’s a larger increase than Florida counted the same time last week. And at the start of June, the state made headlines for consecutive days of 1,000 new cases — a streak that never ended, but the goal posts shifted.

As new cases and the median age of those cases has steadily increased over the past two weeks, so has the share of people testing positive for the first time. That share reached 16.3% Monday.

With 85 more people in adult ICUs at the time of publication, 4,824 of the state’s 6,101 adult ICU beds are filled, leaving 20.9% available.

Officials have tested 2.2 million people for COVID-19 in the state, including 44,627 individuals Sunday, a drop of more than 20,000 from Saturday. The department counted 85,076 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.

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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.