TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida announced 9,785 more cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday and 139 residents’ deaths associated with the novel coronavirus.
It marks two straight days that the state reported fewer than 10,000 new cases, but the death toll is the second-highest Florida has announced in a day, topping yesterday’s 134.
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The state is now up to 379,619 cases and 5,345 resident deaths since the start of the pandemic. Another 114 nonresidents have died in Florida, including one more announced Wednesday.
The new deaths reported include 17 in Miami-Dade County, 12 in Broward and eight in Palm Beach County.
The positivity rate lowered across the state ― as well as in Miami-Dade and Broward ― for coronavirus tests conducted Tuesday. Scroll down to the positivity section for more information.
South Florida elected leaders are trying various measures to slow the spread while avoiding another full shutdown of businesses, but some have said that stay-at-home orders could be brought back if people don’t comply with the existing safety rules.
“The question becomes, how much are we willing to accept of the virus in the community?” Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber said earlier this week. “Because the mere fact we can process two to three times the number of people getting sick doesn’t mean we want to, because a certain number of them are going into ICUs and a portion of those are going to die. So at some point it is not just hospital capacity that is going to govern us, but really our tolerance for this.”
County-by-county
In the past day, Miami-Dade County’s confirmed COVID-19 cases increased by 2,788 to 92,345. The county has 1,342 coronavirus-related deaths, the highest total in the state.
Broward’s cases increased by 1,170 to 43,747. The county’s death toll is now at 529.
Palm Beach County’s cases increased by 555 to 27,506, with the death toll now at 709.
Monroe County is now listed with 978 cases, a one-day increase of 43, and six deaths.
Florida has confirmed at least 22,243 coronavirus-related hospitalizations since the start of the outbreak.
Tracking the records
Florida’s most cases announced in a day: 15,300 on July 12
Florida’s most deaths announced in a day: 156 on July 16
Miami-Dade’s most cases announced in a day: 3,576 on July 12
Broward’s most cases announced in a day: 1,772 on July 12
Palm Beach’s most cases announced in a day: 1,171 on July 12
Monroe’s most cases announced in a day: 74 on July 11
Positivity rates
Over the past month, Florida has seen a notable increase in the rate of COVID-19 tests that are coming back positive, showing that the rise in cases is caused by more than just increased testing.
Statewide, Florida reports having completed over 3.1 million tests for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, with 12% coming back positive. The state says its target is to stay below 10% positivity.
The rate of positivity among people tested for COVID-19 across Florida topped out at over 18% for tests processed July 8. Positivity statewide has remained between 11% and 15% throughout the past week. (This percentage is the number of people who test positive for the first time divided by all the people tested that day, excluding people who have previously tested positive.)
Here’s a look at how those percentages have trended in Miami-Dade and Broward counties:
MIAMI-DADE
- 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 – 19.6%
- 6/24 – 10.2%
- 6/25 – 14.2%
- 6/26 – 14.0%
- 6/27 – 17.7%
- 6/28 – 18.5%
- 6/29 – 17.7%
- 6/30 – 18.2%
- 7/1 – 19.5%
- 7/2 – 20.9%
- 7/3 – 18.9%
- 7/4 – 20.5%
- 7/5 – 19.9%
- 7/6 – 20.9%
- 7/7 – 21.9%
- 7/8 – 26.3%
- 7/9 – 20.3%
- 7/10 – 21.5%
- 7/11 – 16.6%
- 7/12 – 20.3%
- 7/13 – 22.2%
- 7/14 – 20.0%
- 7/15 – 18.6%
- 7/16 – 18.3%
- 7/17 – 17.5%
- 7/18 – 20.6%
- 7/19 – 22.7%
- 7/20 – 19.2%
- 7/21 – 16.7%
BROWARD
- 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 – 10.7%
- 6/24 – 6.4%
- 6/25 – 11.4%
- 6/26 – 10.2%
- 6/27 – 10.4%
- 6/28 – 12.0%
- 6/29 – 13.5%
- 6/30 – 14.7%
- 7/1 – 13.5%
- 7/2 – 16.2%
- 7/3 – 14.0%
- 7/4 – 16.3%
- 7/5 – 15.9%
- 7/6 – 12.9%
- 7/7 – 14.0%
- 7/8 – 22.5%
- 7/9 – 14.9%
- 7/10 – 15.8%
- 7/11 – 13.4%
- 7/12 – 13.8%
- 7/13 – 16.0%
- 7/14 – 14.8%
- 7/15 – 16.6%
- 7/16 – 14.3%
- 7/17 – 13.7%
- 7/18 – 12.6%
- 7/19 – 17.6%
- 7/20 – 15.1%
- 7/21 – 12.4%
The Florida Department of Health confirmed last week that some private laboratories were not reporting negative COVID-19 test results to them as required by the state, leading to 100% positivity rates being reported for those labs.
“The Department immediately began working with those labs to ensure that all results were being reported in order to provide comprehensive and transparent data,” department of health spokeswoman Olga Connor said.
Hospitals and testing
Hospital leaders and medical workers on the front lines are closely watching dwindling bed space and some have had to increase their ICU capacity to treat patients.
Jackson and Memorial are among the health systems that have suspended non-emergency inpatient procedures to protect that capacity.
The state tracks its hospital space by county and by facility, which can be seen here.
More residents, meanwhile, are going out to get tested for COVID-19, which has led to longer lines and delays with getting results back.
The state has added self-swab testing at some of its sites — including Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens and War Memorial Auditorium in Fort Lauderdale — in an attempt to speed up the process.
Latest totals
The United States has passed 3.9 million confirmed cases, with over 142,000 deaths from COVID-19, the highest numbers in the world. Over 1.1 million 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 15 million. There have been more than 617,000 deaths worldwide attributed to the pandemic, with over 8.5 million being declared recovered.
Florida’s daily new cases have trended as follows:
- Wednesday: 9,785
- Tuesday: 9,440
- Monday: 10,347
- Sunday: 12,478
- Saturday: 10,328
- Friday: 11,466
- Thursday: 13,965
- July 15: 10,181
- July 14: 9,194
- July 13: 12,624
- July 12: 15,300
- July 11: 10,360
- July 10: 11,433
- July 9: 8,935
- July 8: 9,989
- July 7: 7,347
- July 6: 6,336
- July 5: 10,059
- July 4: 11,458
- July 3: 9,488
- July 2: 10,109
- July 1: 6,563
- June 30: 6,093
- June 29: 5,266
- June 28: 8,530
- June 27: 9,585
- June 26: 8,942
- June 25: 5,004
- June 24: 5,511
- June 23: 3,289
- June 22: 2,926
- June 21: 3,494
- June 20: 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
Related links
Local 10 News reporters Andrew Perez and Christina Vazquez contributed to this report.