ORLANDO, Fla. — Florida’s resident death toll from coronavirus rose to 22,804 with the addition of 138 more reported fatalities on Saturday while also adding 15,445 more positive COVID-19 cases to bring the total to 1,464,697.
Saturday’s report is fourth highest for daily new cases, based on state Department of Health data. The Sentinel excluded the daily new cases that were a day after Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day as they could be two days worth of cases combined.
A record 19,816 infections were reported Thursday, the highest daily increase since the outbreak hit. The record is followed by Friday’s daily high of 19,530 cases and Wednesday’s 17,783 cases.
The state has not reported less than 10,000 new daily cases since Dec. 28.
With a population of about 21.5 million, about one in 15 people in the state have now been infected. That number is closer to one in 15 nationally and one in 87 worldwide.
The latest White House COVID-19 Task Force report from Jan. 3 has categorized Florida in full pandemic status for all categories: test positivity and high levels of community transmission in nearly 90% of the counties.
Deaths are also starting to surge to the levels seen in summer, averaging around 141 resident deaths a day in January. The largest single day of reported deaths was Aug. 11 when the state listed 276 deaths. Those deaths, though, were from several previous days, as it can take weeks and sometimes several months for reports to appear.
With 346 non-Florida resident deaths, including one new death reported Saturday, the state’s combined total stands at 23,150.
Florida has seen about one in 942 of its residents die from the virus, while nationally it’s closer to one in 888 people, and worldwide, it’s at about one in 4,064 of the planet’s 7.8 billion population.
COVID-19 hospitalizations are climbing back up toward mid-July highs of more than 8,000. They had fallen to around 2,000 by early October, but passed 7,000 this week.
Across the state, 7,424 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of about 1:30 p.m. Saturday including 433 in Orange County, 179 in Osceola, 151 in Lake and 146 in Seminole. The state’s online tool updates several times throughout the day.
To date, 66,332 people have been hospitalized in Florida, according to the state’s report, which includes 346 newly reported hospitalizations since Friday’s update.
Over 131,889 people were hospitalized with COVID-19 across the United States as of Thursday, according to COVID-19 Tracking Project, which updates its cumulative data once a day.
Vaccine efforts, though, hope to stem the rise in hospitalizations and fatalities. Statewide through Friday, 478,443 people have received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine, according to the DOH. 35,857 have received both doses. A detailed breakdown of who has been vaccinated so far can be found here.
Cases, though, continue to climb, and testing has ramped up. To date, 9,194,566 people have been tested in Florida, 47,305 more than Friday’s total.
The positivity rate among those newly tested has climbed above 10% for seven days in row.
Statewide, the latest positivity rate reported Saturday for Friday’s test results by the Florida Department of Health was 10.79%, but that’s for new cases only and excludes anyone who previously tested positive. For all cases including retests of those previously infected, the latest positivity rate is 12.60%.
The virus has infected more than 89.2 million people and has killed more than 1.9 million worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins University & Medicine Coronavirus Resource Center. Nationwide, nearly 22 million people have been infected and more than 369,000 are dead.
Within the U.S., New York has the most deaths with more than 39,000, followed by Texas with more than 29,600 and California with more than 29,200. Florida is 4th overall, but ranks 22nd per capita.
Brazil has the second-most fatalities with more than 201,000, India with more than 150,000, Mexico with more than 132,000, the United Kingdom with more than 81,000, Italy with more than 78,000, France with more than 67,000, Russia with more than 60,000, Iran with more than 56,000, and Spain with more than 51,000, according to John Hopkins University.
Total deaths attributed to COVID-19 amount to .11% of the state population, and one in 64 who are infected have died, a 1.56% death rate. The national death toll amounts to .11% of the population, with one in 59 infected dying, a 1.69% death rate.
Globally, the number of deaths is at .02% of the world’s population, with one in 46 infected dying, a 2.15% death rate. Death rates have actually gone down as more cases have been reported, and more people recover with improved treatments, even though the overall death toll continues to climb.
That rate would be even lower as the actual number of cases around the world is believed to be much higher than reported — perhaps 10 times higher in the U.S., according to the CDC — given testing limitations and the many mild cases that have gone unreported or unrecognized.
