Scott Powers
Another 1,758 people tested positive for COVID-19 in Central Florida Tuesday, resetting an upward trend in the daily counts of new cases.
The latest daily report from the Florida Department of Health released Wednesday also showed sharply higher numbers of people admitted to the hospital and of people dying because of the coronavirus across greater Orlando’s six counties.
The rate of COVID-19 tests coming back positive for Central Florida residents also nudged higher with Wednesday’s report.
In Orange County, 711 new cases of COVID-19 were confirmed Wednesday. In Volusia County there were 262 cases; Osceola County, 209; Lake County, 199; Brevard County, 191; and Seminole County, 186.
The previous day the count of new cases had dipped slightly from previous upward trends, to 1,461 new cases Tuesday. However, with the latest report, through Wednesday morning, the Central Florida region trend renewed upward. The rolling seven-day average of 1,659 new cases per day is the highest level seen since mid-summer.
For the latest batch of test results to be returned on Tuesday, 17,831 across the six counties, the positive-test rate rose slightly to 8.8%, from 8.3% seen for Monday’s batch and 7.5% for each of the batches delivered to state authorities the previous two days.
Lake County continued to see the highest positive-test result rate in Central Florida. Lake’s rate climbed to 12.6% in Tuesday’s batch. Positive results were seen in 9.9% of the tests returned in Osceola County, 9.2% in Seminole County, 9% in Volusia County, 8.5% in Orange County, and 6.4% in Brevard County.
Across the region, 58 people were newly reported to be admitted to hospitals due to COVID-19 symptoms Wednesday. That included 17 new hospital admissions in Brevard, 13 in Orange, 11 in Lake, eight in Volusia, five in Seminole, and four in Osceola.
State authorities newly attributed 24 people’s deaths to COVID-19 in Wednesday’s report. That included nine each in Orange and Osceola, six in Volusia, and two in Seminole. In Brevard, state health officials reduced the official running death toll by two on Wednesday.
Statewide, health officials reported 121 deaths and 11,384 COVID-19 diagnoses Wednesday as Florida recorded another day with more than 10,000 new cases.
Across Florida, 8.6% of the newly-returned COVID-19 tests returned Tuesday came back positive.
