Florida records 2,908 COVID-19 cases as virus resurges nationally

State health officials confirmed 2,908 new COVID-19 cases since Thursday’s daily report, keeping the state’s virus easing consistent even as outbreaks hit the American Northeast and Midwest.

In Florida, 728,921 people have tested positive for the virus, including 8,920 non-residents. The state’s death toll crossed 15,000 Thursday and ticked up to 15,186 Friday, not including the 186 non-residents that have died in the state.

Florida’s case fatality rate remains 2.1%, lower than the United States’ 2.8%, but the state’s mortality rate per 100,000 population increased to 70.3.

The new cases reported Friday were confirmed between Thursday morning and Friday morning. All day Thursday, the state recorded 2,904 cases with a median age of 40. Those cases came from the 75,582 results received Thursday, a near recent high.

Eleven of the previous 14 days have seen percent positivity rates below 5%. Some experts say a community should maintain rates below 5% for 14 days before reopening services like schools.

But Gov. Ron DeSantis has instead shifted the state’s focus on hospital visits with symptoms related to COVID-19. Last week, medical professionals reported 3,522 visits, a 12th consecutive week of decline since visits peaked at 15,999 the week of July 5.

Overall, 45,675 Floridians have been hospitalized, an increase of 192 since Thursday’s report. But the Agency for Health Care Administration reports that 2,143 people are currently hospitalized with the disease, an increase of three since Thursday.

In total, 5.5 million Floridians have been tested for COVID-19, as have 21,636 nonresidents in the state.

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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.