229 COVID-19 deaths confirmed in Florida as positive signs continue

State health officials confirmed another 229 deaths in Florida tied to COVID-19, but state health officials have released a more comprehensive look at those that have died throughout the pandemic.

With 228 deaths among Floridians and one dead non-resident who was in the state, 9,141 residents have died, as have 135 non-residents in the state.

The state also continued its downward trend in confirmed positives with 6,148 residents and non-residents diagnosed with the disease since Thursday’s report. On Thursday, 6,218 residents tested positive.

Overall, 563,285 people, including 5,948 non-Floridians, have tested positive since officials first identified the virus in Florida on March 1.

Thursday’s report, which was a couple hours behind schedule, was the first report to include an expanded outlook at deaths among Floridians. Both versions show that the deadliest day over the last 30 days was July 16, when 172 Floridians died.

Florida’s median age of death has been 79. The case fatality rate is 1.6% and the mortality rate per 100,000 people is 42.3.

The mortality rate has been higher among Blacks than White and Hispanics than non-Hispanics while the inverse is true in the case fatality rate.

In long-term care facilities, 3,886 staff and residents have died, including 81 since Thursday’s report.

Both cases and deaths appear to be in decline, and the positivity rate, count of emergency department visits and hospital censuses are also showing favorable signs.

The positivity rate for tests returned Thursday was 8.1%, the lowest mark in weeks.

Accepting the state’s revision for a one time blip in the positivity rate Tuesday because of one lab’s release of seven weeks of data, the seven-day average positivity rate has fallen to 9.2%.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has continued highlighting emergency department visits has a leading indicator and preferred metric for tracking the virus’ spread. Those trends have suggested the pandemic has been declining since early July.

And the hospital census fell below 6,000 for the first time since the Agency for Health Care Administration began reporting it. That count is now 5,905, down 420 from 24 hours earlier.

Overall, 33,155 Floridians have been hospitalized, an increase of 618 from Thursday’s report.

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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.