136 people dead from COVID-19 amid diagnostic reprieve

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For the first time in a week, fewer than 10,000 people tested positive for COVID-19 in health officials’ latest report.

But fatalities are back over 100 in the last 24 hours after a weekend lull gave the state a slight reprieve from the rising death toll.

Since Monday morning, the Department of Health confirmed the deaths of 134 Floridians and two non-residents visiting the state. In total, 5,206 residents have died, as have 113 non-residents in the state.

The state crossed 5,000 dead residents Monday morning after crossing 5,000 total dead the day prior.

With 9,440 new diagnoses, Florida has seen 369,834 total cases, including among 365,244 residents. And 517 more Floridians were hospitalized with the virus, raising the total count of hospitalizations to 21,780.

The sum of hospitalizations includes the 9,436 currently hospitalized with the disease, according to the Agency for Health Care Administration. That’s 18 fewer than the state reported about 24 hours earlier.

For more than a week, the state has counted more than 90 deaths each day. Thursday was the Sunshine State’s deadliest day of the pandemic, with 156 people confirmed dead.

Prior to the latest rash of deaths, the record numbers of confirmed deaths was 72 on May 5.

Deaths are a lagging indicator of the virus, coming at least three weeks behind upticks in cases. About five weeks ago, Florida began seeing multiple thousands of new cases daily.

Meanwhile, hecklers have overshadowed Gov. Ron DeSantis in his public appearances in recent days, drawing the national media away from his intended message. The demonstrators have shamed him for how he’s handled the pandemic and shouted that he is lying about the pandemic’s breadth.

On Friday, the Governor was asked if he takes responsibility for the thousands dead in the state. He declined to answer the question directly.

“I think every time you have fatalities for any reason, I think it’s a tragedy and we certainly have seen fatalities in Florida, particularly recently,” he said. “We’ve seen fatalities particularly in places down in Miami-Dade, and it’s a terrible, terrible thing.”

A rising number of the state’s elderly population, an at-risk demographic for severe complications from the virus, have tested positive in the weeks since the median age of new cases plummeted from the 50s to the early 30s throughout the end of May and beginning of April.

The median age of people testing positive was 41 once again Monday. That’s been the metric’s ceiling since the state started reporting it when the average age was still in the low 30s.

As of Tuesday, 2,445 residents and staff of longterm care facilities have died with COVID-19, an increase of 45 from Monday’s report.

The 9,440 new cases cover residents and non-residents confirmed positive Monday morning to Tuesday morning. For just Monday, the state diagnosed 9,373 positive residents.

After 14 days of a downward trend in the percent positive results among prospective new cases, 14.7% tested positive Sunday. The percentage came closer to the recent trend Monday with 13.6% testing positive, but still higher than last week’s average

In the past 14 days, the daily rate has been as high as 18.5% and as low as 11.3%, all above the state’s target 10% threshold and the 3% that were testing positive in the second half of May.

More than 3.1 million individuals have been tested in Florida, including 77,160 Monday. That down from the record 142,964 individuals set on July 11.

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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.