Florida surpasses 10,000 coronavirus deaths

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Florida surpassed 10,000 coronavirus-related deaths Wednesday after 174 new deaths were reported that day.
• Even though the death toll is rising, the state’s average number of weekly coronavirus cases has declined. 
• COVID-19 is now the third leading cause of death in the U.S., behind only heart disease and cancer.

On Wednesday, Florida reported 174 new deaths from COVID-19, surpassing 10,000 deaths almost six months since the first case was identified in the state.

Florida’s death toll is at 10,067 since the pandemic began.

New York, California, Texas and New Jersey are the only other states whose coronavirus fatalities have reached five digits.

Even as deaths have been increasing, Florida’s average number of weekly coronavirus cases has declined. 

Earlier this summer, as Florida reported an average of 11,000 cases a day, state officials argued the low death rate as a positive sign. But deaths always lag behind infections, and the number has increased rapidly. 

Half of all COVID-19 deaths in the state have occurred in just the last month.

Florida has reported fewer hospitalizations in recent days. As of Wednesday, about 5,300 people were in the hospital with the virus, according to the Agency for Health Care Administration.  

Florida has now gone a full week with daily positivity rates below 10 percent, according to state officials. But the state health department reportedly does not count positive retests, only the initial negative test, leading to an inaccurate lower rate.

According to Johns Hopkins University, Florida’s seven-day rolling average positivity rate is 16.4 percent.

Diagnostic testing across the state has also been decreasing. 

On Monday, the health department reported the fewest number of tests processed since June, with 20,248. The seven-day rolling average was nearly 33,000 tests, down from a high of nearly 66,000 in July. 

The coronavirus pandemic is raging across the country. There are almost 5.6 million cases in the U.S. and 174,000 deaths so far.

COVID-19 is currently the third leading cause of death in the U.S., behind only heart disease and cancer, eight months after the first case of coronavirus was reported in the country. 

Source: The Hill