Fourth day of record-breaking death tolls as Florida counts 257 fatalities

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State health officials reported 257 fatalities tied to COVID-19 Friday, marking the fourth consecutive record-breaking daily report for the death toll in the state.

On Tuesday, the Department of Health (DOH) reported 191 fatalities. Since then, daily confirmed deaths have continued growing, and now 6,843 residents and 123 non-residents in the state have died — nearly 7,000 total.

Already this week, state health officials have reported more than 1,000 dead Floridians. In no week prior has the Department of Health reported 1,000 deaths.

The seven-day average deaths also tracked to a new high of 170, nearly as high as the once-record 173 deaths reported last Thursday.

But while the mortality rate continues unrelenting, the testing positivity rate has also trended downward, a trend Gov. Ron DeSantis has continued to highlight in recent weeks.

Between Thursday morning and Friday morning, DOH confirmed 9,007 new cases among Florida residents and non-residents, a sixth consecutive day of fewer than 10,000 diagnoses. For all day Thursday, the state confirmed cases in 8,983 residents.

In total, 470,386 people, including 5,356 non-residents, have tested positive in Florida. Only California, with 485,502 cases, has had more diagnoses.

The percent positivity rate fell to 10.6%, helping drive down the seven-day testing average to 11.5%. That’s down from the more than 15% of people that were testing positive at the start of the month, but still above the state’s 10% goal and above the 3% that were testing positive in the second half of May.

Another 516 Floridians were hospitalized with COVID-19. Throughout the pandemic, 26,533 Floridians have been hospitalized.

The Agency for Health Care Administration reports 8,249 people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19, a decrease of 170 in the last 24 hours.

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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.