Florida shattered the national record Sunday for the largest single-day increase in positive coronavirus cases in any state since the beginning of the pandemic, adding more than 15,000 cases.
According to the state Department of Health statistics, 15,299 people tested positive, for a total of 269,811 cases, and 45 deaths were recorded.
The numbers come at the end of a grim, record-breaking week as Florida reported 514 fatalities — an average of 73 per day. Three weeks ago, the state was averaging 30 deaths per day. Since the pandemic began in March, 4,346 people have died in Florida of COVID-19, the state says.
According to the AHCA database, as of Friday evening, there are 7,507 coronavirus patients in hospitals across the state. According to the DOH, 18,271 have received hospital care due to the virus.
The data shows Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties have the highest numbers of current COVID-19 patients.
In Central Florida, Orange County has 542 patients, Osceola has 206, according to the AHCA numbers.
Some hospital systems say they have the ability to add beds if needed.
Since the Florida Department of Health began reporting cases of the coronavirus on March 1 the state has included the overall total of hospitalizations but not the current number.
View the breakdown below, including how many hospital and intensive care beds are available by county and facility:
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Testing has doubled over the last month, going from about 25,000 tests per day to almost 50,000, but the percentage of people testing positive has risen even more dramatically. A month ago, fewer than 5% of tests came up positive on a daily average. Over the past week, the daily average exceeded 19%.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said that even with the rising rates, he still wants the schools to reopen as scheduled next month, saying children have not proven to be vectors for the disease in states and countries where campuses are open. He said while each county will have to come up with procedures, depending on their local infection rate, not opening the schools would exacerbate the achievement gap between high- and low-performing students.
Throughout May and into June, the state reopened much of its economy with some restrictions — and the number of positive cases began rising, but it wasn’t until the last week that the daily death total began rising, too.
Because of the increase in cases and the positivity rate, doctors have predicted a rise in deaths, saying the mortality rate usually increases two to four weeks later as some of those infected get sicker and eventually die. Health experts are concerned that people are gathering in crowds, and have expressed concern that the Republican National Convention’s nomination party for President Donald Trump will be held in Jacksonville in August.
The Associated Press contributed to this story
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