Staff Reports
State health officials reported 100 deaths among residents with COVID-19 Saturday morning as the rate of new fatalities tied to the virus remained level this week.
With the latest update, which includes findings made since Friday morning, 12,600 residents and 156 non-residents have died in the Sunshine State. The most deaths confirmed in a single daily report was 276 on Aug. 11.
After dipping below 100 earlier this week, the rolling seven-day average of daily deaths rose above that mark Friday and Saturday. That average as of Saturday is 113, but well below the mid-August peak of 185.
Overall, 661,571 Floridians have tested positive after the Department of Health added 3,190 cases in the last 24 hours. The total includes 7,481 non-residents who tested positive in the state.
The new cases cover results returned between Friday morning and Saturday morning. For all-day Friday, DOH received 3,227 positive cases with a median age of 35, back to a recent low as schools and universities reopen.
The fastest-growing age cohort for the virus is Floridians aged 15 to 24. Of those positive cases from Friday, 918 — or 28% — of all positives came from that age group. Throughout August, 14% of cases were aged 15 to 24.
The summer Sunbelt COVID-19 resurgence was precipitated by a surge in COVID-19 cases among younger Floridians. In June, Gov. Ron DeSantis pointed to a dramatic drop in the median age of positive cases from the 50s to the mid and low 30s.
Before the recent uptick, the share of new cases was roughly evenly distributed across those aged 15 to 64, spanning five age cohorts. The number of new cases aged 15 to 24 is now more than double that of the next-closest age cohort.
But the new positives among that age group are mostly college students, who DeSantis said are being tested frequently, and few of whom show symptoms.
The week of July 5 saw 6,255 emergency department visits with flu-like illnesses and 15,999 for illnesses like COVID-19. Last week, those visits dropped to 1,841 and 3,290, respectively, for an eighth consecutive week of decline.
Overall, 41,215 Floridians have been hospitalized, an increase of 194 since Friday’s report. But the Agency for Health Care Administration reports that 2,683 people are currently hospitalized with the disease.
In total, 4.9 million Floridians have been tested for COVID-19, as have 20,232 nonresidents in the state. On Friday, DOH received 79,168 test results.
The positivity rate Friday fell from 5.5% to 4.4%. Over the last seven days, each day’s positivity rate has averaged 5.1%.
The state’s self-imposed target threshold is 10%, but some medical experts have pointed to 5% as when services like schools could start reopening.
Miami-Dade and Broward counties, the two counties with the most COVID-19 cases, will join the rest of the state in Phase Two of the state’s reopening plan Monday, paving the way for schools to reopen in those counties.
While students at already-open schools are testing positive, DeSantis told reporters Friday that schools have not been a source of transmission.
“The fact is, kids being index cases and fueling secondary transmission, the data just doesn’t support it as it currently stands,” he said.
Also Monday, bars will reopen with a maximum 50% seating.
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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.
