Coronavirus: Florida reports 8,530 new cases Sunday

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida reported 8,530 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, one day after the state set a new single-day record of 9,585 cases.

The state is now up to 141,075 confirmed cases and 3,419 deaths associated with COVID-19, according to the latest data released by the health department.

There were 29 new coronavirus-related deaths reported since Saturday across the state, including six in Miami-Dade County and 11 in Palm Beach County.

Gov. Ron DeSantis downplayed the significance of the record number of cases Friday but noted the increase in the percent of cases that have been coming back positive in recent days.

“What we’re seeing today, obviously a lot of news [is] saying a huge number of ‘cases,‘” DeSantis said. “Really nothing has changed in the past week. We had a big test dump. We’ve been testing, 10-15% have been testing positive for really the last week. And that’s a huge change from where we were at the beginning of June, when we were basically 3-4% in terms of the positivity statewide.”

See the governor’s full news conference here:

In the past day, Miami-Dade County’s confirmed cases increased by 2,152 to 33,714. The county has 953 deaths, the highest total in the state.

Broward’s cases increased by 574 to 14,620. The county’s death toll remained at 382.

Palm Beach County’s cases increased by 461 to 13,389, with the death toll rising to 503.

Monroe County now has 219 cases (an increase of 15 since Saturday) and four confirmed deaths.

Florida has confirmed at least 14,244 coronavirus-related hospitalizations since the start of the outbreak.

Medical experts and elected leaders have noted a rising number of cases among younger patients, which they’ve attributed to more widely available testing and people coming closer together both as businesses reopen and while attending large protests in recent weeks.

This week, local leaders have gotten tougher on face masks and threatened to shut down and heavily fine businesses that don’t follow safety guidelines.

Positivity rates rise

The explanation that the COVID-19 case rise can be purely attributed to more testing has been shelved as the rate of positivity among Florida’s tests has increased significantly in the past week-plus.

Statewide, Florida reports having completed over 1.8 million tests for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, with 7.5% coming back positive.

The rate of positivity among people tested for COVID-19 across Florida has been higher over the past week than previously, cresting at 15.7% positivity for tests administered Tuesday.

Here’s a look at how those percentages have trended in Miami-Dade and Broward counties:

MIAMI-DADE

• 6/5 – 6.8%
• 6/6 – 3.6%
• 6/7 – 7.8%
• 6/8 – 5.1%
• 6/9 – 7.1%
• 6/10 – 5.7%
• 6/11 – 6%
• 6/12 – 10.3%
• 6/13 – 3.0%
• 6/14 – 8.9%
• 6/15 – 9.0%
• 6/16 – 12.8%
• 6/17 – 11.2%
• 6/18 – 11.1%
• 6/19 – 11.7%
• 6/20 – 13.3%
• 6/21 – 8.9%
• 6/22 – 18.1%
• 6/23 – 19.5%
• 6/24 – 10.1%
• 6/25 – 14.2%
• 6/26 – 14.0%
• 6/27 – 17.8%

BROWARD

• 6/5 – 3.3%
• 6/6 – 2.9%
• 6/7 – 4.5%
• 6/8 – 4%
• 6/9 – 6.7%
• 6/10 – 5.9%
• 6/11 – 5%
• 6/12 – 6.0%
• 6/13 – 2.7%
• 6/14 – 5.1%
• 6/15 – 7.6%
• 6/16 – 9.8%
• 6/17 – 7.3%
• 6/18 – 8.9%
• 6/19 – 9.7%
• 6/20 – 9.6%
• 6/21 – 6.1%
• 6/22 – 10.2%
• 6/23 – 10.9%
• 6/24 – 6.4%
• 6/25 – 11.4%
• 6/26 – 10.4%
• 6/27 – 10.9%

Patients younger, less financially stable

Trends have emerged in South Florida showing that a high percentage of the coronavirus cases are in zip codes that are younger and less financially stable.

Miami-Dade County will target its hotspots (Miami’s Brownsville, Little Havana and Allapattah neighborhoods and areas of South Dade) with more education and distribution of masks and hand sanitizers.

Broward County said it will focus federal funds toward zip codes that are showing up as that county’s hot spots.

While the younger demographic may not face the harshest symptoms from COVID-19, infectious disease experts remind that they can still spread the disease to older and more vulnerable residents.

Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez even suggested that those vulnerable residents may want to keep limit their contact with the younger crowd that has been out and about.

Hospitals have also reported seeing sicker patients who are in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s than was seen earlier in the outbreak.

Latest totals

The United States has passed 2.5 million confirmed cases, with over 125,000 deaths from COVID-19, the highest numbers in the world. Over 679,000 Americans have been deemed recovered, according to data compiled from various sources by Johns Hopkins University.

Worldwide, the number of COVID-19 cases reported has surpassed 10 million. There have been more than 499,000 deaths worldwide attributed to the pandemic, with over 5 million being declared recovered.

In Florida, since June 3, the state has reported more than 1,000 new cases each day except one.

• Sunday: 8,530
• Saturday: 9,585
• Friday: 8,942
• Thursday: 5,004
• Wednesday: 5,511
• Tuesday: 3,289
• Monday: 2,926
• Sunday: 3,494
• Saturday: 4,049
• June 19: 3,822
• June 18: 3,207
• June 17: 2,610
• June 16: 2,783
• June 15: 1,758
• June 14: 2,016
• June 13: 2,581
• June 12: 1,902
• June 11: 1,698
• June 10: 1,371
• June 9: 1,096
• June 8: 966
• June 7: 1,180
• June 6: 1,270
• June 5: 1,305
• June 4: 1,419
• June 3: 1,317

RELATED LINKS

• List of cases by city in South Florida
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