More Than 6,300 New Coronavirus Cases in Florida, Nearly 50 New Virus-Related Deaths

Florida added more than 6,300 new coronavirus cases Monday, as the state's virus-related death toll rose by nearly 50.

The 6,336 new COVID-19 cases brought the state's total to 206,447, according to figures released by the Florida Department of Health.

Monday's total of new cases was about 3,700 lower than Sunday's total, and about 5,100 below Saturday's record-setting daily total of 11,458.

The state has seen a large increase in cases in the past week, with around 60,000 confirmed in that span of time.

The percent positivity for the new cases reported Monday was 14.97%, the seventh consecutive day the rate has been over 14%. The positivity rate of all tests reported Monday was 17.25%.

The share of people testing positive over the last seven days climbed to a record 16.7%. The median age of people who tested positive in Monday's results was 38.

Statewide, more than 2,235,900 people have been tested for COVID-19, with an overall percent positive of 9.2%. The results of nearly 45,000 tests were reported Monday. More than 16,000 hospitalizations for COVID-19 have been reported in Florida to-date.

The state reported 47 new virus-related deaths among Florida residents, bringing the total to 3,778. The state reported one additional death of a non-Florida resident, bringing the total of non-resident deaths to 102.

Over the last week, the state has confirmed and announced an average of 47 deaths per day, the highest level in almost two months. But many of the deaths — 25 of the 76 confirmed the last two days, for example — occurred more than four weeks prior to their being announced.

In South Florida, Miami-Dade County's case total rose by nearly 2,000, to 48,992, along with 1,051 virus-related deaths. The county's dashboard showed a 22.53% average positivity rate over the past 14 days. It also showed the county's non-ICU COVID hospital bed capacity at about 47%, while ICU COVID bed capacity was at about 75%.

In Broward County, there were 21,856 confirmed cases, along with 414 deaths. Palm Beach County had 17,242 cases and 543 deaths, while Monroe had 380 cases and five deaths.

At a news conference Monday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis attempted to calm fears as COVID-19 cases are increasing across the state.

"Really, I mean, it's a team effort here in Florida. We've got all hands-on deck and I think the people of Florida are responding positively and I think they're responding in ways. But there's no need to be fearful. Just focus on the facts. We understand. We've got to do as a state and let's… let's get it done," DeSantis said.

The governor's comments came shortly after Miami Mayor Carlos Gimenez issued an emergency order closing restaurants and certain other indoor places, including gyms and vacation rentals, seven weeks after they were allowed to reopen.

"There are and have been way more infections than documented cases. And so, if you see 5000 cases, 10000 just understand that is not the sum total of the people that have been infected. We were doing 80, 000 tests a day in March or April. Those numbers would have been dramatically higher in terms of case numbers," DeSantis said.

But the increased testing only partly explains the spike as the positivity rate for tests for the past week is now more than 18%, four times higher than a month ago when the weekly average stood at 4.6%.

A month ago, the state was averaging about 1,500 new coronavirus cases a day.