Florida added 2,678 new coronavirus infections and 87 new deaths on Monday – the largest daily dip in both metrics in two months.
Gov. Ron DeSantis noted the decline in numbers during a press conference in Panama City Beach Monday morning, saying they have been “trending in the right direction for many weeks now” and that he expects this to continue.
The number of hospitalized patients with the virus has dropped by nearly 40 percent in recent weeks, the mayor said. Those who end up in intensive care units at hospitals have decreased by almost 30 percent.
“Whether people show up at the (ambulance department) or not, that’s just a fact,” DeSantis said. ‘When people appear in higher numbers, there is more prevalence. If they appear in much lower numbers, that is a sign that the prevalence has decreased. ”
In the six months since the start of the pandemic, Florida has reached 576,094 total infections. About 9,539 people in the state have died from the virus.
In the previous 24 hours, 39,158 coronavirus tests were processed by the Florida Department of Health. About 8 percent of new cases test positive.
The greater Tampa Bay area reported 401 new infections and 19 new deaths.
What is the image statewide?
The Department of Health calculates the positivity rate of the state, when the percentage of all positive results processed during testing, at 13 percent. But Johns Hopkins University says Florida’s positivity rate is 16.4 percent.
Both are well above the World Health Organization’s recommendation of a sustained 5 percent for two weeks before they loosen social distance limits.
There were 5,654 people in hospitals in Florida with a primary diagnosis of coronavirus as of Monday, according to the Agency for Health Care Administration.
DeSantis has consistently said that searching for hospital admissions is a strong metric for understanding the level of illness in a community, compared to the positivity rate as other metrics he previously highlighted.
Across Florida, 26 percent of hospital beds and 22 percent of beds for intensive care units are available, according to the Agency For Health Care Administration. In Tampa Bay, about 22 percent of hospital beds and 18 percent of ICU beds are available.
What’s the picture in Tampa Bay?
The Tampa Bay region added 401 new infections and 19 new deaths on Monday.
There were eight in Pinellas County, which has one of the highest death rates in any Florida county. About 69 percent of the dead in Pinellas are tied to long-term facilities.
There were four new deaths in Hillsborough County, three in Pasco and two in Polk. They were men and women, aged 55 to 92.
As of the last count, Hillsborough had 34,368 deaths and 487 deaths; Pinellas had 18,774 deaths and 558 deaths; Polk killed 15,506 and killed 360; Manatee has 9,843 deaths and 245 deaths; Pasco has 7,490 deaths and 152 deaths; Hernando had 2,255 deaths and 60 deaths; and Citrus has 1,799 cases and 40 deaths.
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