Florida records 6,000th COVID-19 death

More than 6,000 people have died from COVID-19 in Florida after the state confirmed 77 additional deaths in a Monday morning report.

The Department of Health counted 78 dead residents and ruled out a previously reported resident tied to the disease, raising the death toll among Florida residents to 5,931. An additional 118 non-residents have died in the state for a total of 6,049 fatalities tied to the Sunshine State.

Health officials also confirmed 8,892 new cases of the virus, raising the total count to 432,747. And with 268 more hospitalizations, 24,332 Florida residents have been hospitalized with the illness.

Florida passed New York in confirmed COVID-19 cases Sunday.

Monday marks the second-straight day officials counted fewer than 10,000 cases, reflecting the usual dip in cases, deaths and hospitalizations confirmed in reports that mostly cover weekend updates.

The new diagnoses cover residents and non-residents confirmed positive Sunday to Monday morning. For all day Sunday, the state diagnosed 8,901 positive residents.

Among those individuals, the median age was 43, the high mark since health officials began reporting it daily. That age plummeted from the 50s to the mid-30s as the virus spread throughout late May and early June.

Monday also marks the first time since July 9 that fewer than 9,000 people tested positive in Florida. The testing positivity rate among possible new cases increased slightly to 11.4%, but still below the 7-day average of 12%.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has noted the plateaued positivity rate as a good sign for Florida, but that rate is still higher than 10%, the state’s goal.

More than 3.4 million individuals have been tested in Florida, including 88,814 people whose results came back Sunday. That’s down from the record 142,962 individuals set July 11.

On CNBC’s Squawk Box Monday morning, former Governor and current U.S. Sen. Rick Scott criticized, at great length, “inconsistent” messaging from governors of hot spot states, but didn’t mention DeSantis by name.

“I was very specific as Governor,” he said. “This is where the local transmission is. Tell us where the problem spots are. We’re pretty smart. We don’t go there.”

“But without information, how do we make good decisions,” Scott asked.

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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.