Florida added 200 more coronavirus-related deaths to its growing total Wednesday, as the state continued to see decreases in reported cases.
Florida identified another 2,056 coronavirus infections, bringing the state’s total to 652,148, the state Department of Health reported Wednesday.
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The increase in cases fell below 3,000 for the fourth straight day, the first time that has happened since mid-June. It continues a downward trend from mid-July, when the increases were averaging 11,865 a day.
The state also confirmed another 200 deaths were related to COVID-19. Most of those deaths occurred prior to Monday, August 24, as it takes time to confirm and count the deaths.
To-date, the deaths of 12,115 Florida residents have been related to coronavirus, along with 154 non-resident deaths in the state.
One metric that will be closely followed in the weeks ahead is positivity rates.
An increase in the share of tests coming back positive in the weeks after Labor Day could be a sign of things to come, as greater prevalence in the community restarts a cycle of hospitalizations and deaths.
Among all test results received by the state in Wednesday's report, 8.2% were positive. When retests of those previously found to be positive are excluded, the new case rate statewide was 5.9%. Both are the highest in a week.
In Miami-Dade the new case rate increased to 6.3%, the highest in five days. But one-day variations are not as significant as wider samples, experts say, and the county’s weeklong rate of 6.1% remains relatively low — half of what it was three weeks ago.
In Broward, the rate also increased slightly to 4.3%, but the rate over seven days remains just under 4%, the lowest in months.
In Wednesday's report, Miami-Dade County had 2,740 virus-related deaths reported, 74 more than were reported Tuesday. The county had 162,433 COVID-19 cases, a daily increase of about 400.
Broward County had 73,696 COVID-19 cases Wednesday, an increase of 140, along with 1,244 virus-related deaths, 10 more than were reported Tuesday.
