Scott Powers
Greater Orlando saw its worst daily report yet for new COVID-19 cases Thursday, with Orange and Osceola counties and the region setting daily highs.
Thursday’s COVID-19 reports from Florida Department of Health also showed a continuation of the trends of concerning increases in the numbers of COVID-19 patients being admitted to hospitals and of people who are dying from COVID-19 complications.
The 2,512 new cases logged across the six-county Central Florida region in Thursday’s report was a new high, by more than 200, over the previous worst 24-hour period for new cases, which was reported on Sunday.
The region also saw reports of 65 more people admitted to Central Florida hospitals for COVID-19, and of 21 people dying from the disease. Both of those are the worst regional numbers in at least two months.
These latest reports continued trends seen for a while across Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Volusia, Brevard and Lake counties: increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases, hospital admissions, and deaths.
They also are consistent with what’s going on statewide, as daily deaths spiked in Florida with a third straight day of triple-digit fatalities.
In Orange County, a new one-day mark of 1,390 new COVID-19 cases were logged in the latest state report. That was higher than the previous worst 24-hour load of 1,371 new cases reported Sunday. Thursday’s total pushed Orange’s COVID-19 caseload over 20,000 since the crisis began in March, to 21,299 confirmed cases of the disease.
The latest reports showed only nine new patients being admitted to Orange County hospitals, but they also recorded eight new COVID-19 fatalities. The Florida Department of Health also showed the results from the latest set of coronavirus tests that came in Wednesday, and Orange County received its second-largest batch of results, 10,989, with 11.1% of those being positive for the disease.
In Osceola County, 519 new cases were added to the county’s total caseload, far more than the previous 24-hour mark of 306 reported Sunday, and pushing Osceola’s total caseload over the 5,000 mark, to 5,270. However, no new fatalities were reported for Osceola, and only four new hospital admissions were recorded in the state’s latest report. Osceola saw 15.7% of 2,769 test results come back positive on Wednesday.
Volusia County logged 217 COVID-19 cases in Thursday’s report. The report showed 12 people newly admitted to hospitals for the disease, but no one died from COVID since the previous report. The county saw 15.2% of 1,201 test results come back positive.
Seminole County added 177 new cases to its caseload. Nineteen new COVID-19 patients were reported admitted to Seminole hospitals, and three COVID-19 patients were reported to have died since the state’s previous daily report. Seminole saw 10.1% of test results come back positive for the virus, out of 1,600 that were returned Wednesday.
Lake County received reports on 127 new COVID-19 cases, pushing its total caseload over 3,000, to 3009. Six COVID-19 patients died, and five were admitted to hospitals since the previous daily report. Lake health officials saw 9.5% of 1,200 test results come back positive.
In Brevard County, 82 COVID-19 cases were logged. Four fatalities were recorded, and 16 people were admitted to Brevard hospitals for COVID-19 since the previous report. Only 7.0% of 1,092 test results came back positive, however.
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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, consider 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 nonresidents 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.
One comment
martin
July 16, 2020 at 12:23 pm
It has been reported that central Florida hospitals have seriously “over-reported” the number of positive cases by a factor of 10x. Ok, Mr. Powers, be a journalist and report on that.
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